Running a business is a series of choices. Where to play. How to win. What to focus on now versus later. Strategy, in many ways, is ultimately about making clear, deliberate choices.

Yet one of the most common patterns among business owners, executives, and founders is recognising a problem, or seeing the signs of a problem brewing and then doing nothing about it.

Instead of making a decision, they delay. They defer. They downplay. They convince themselves they’ll deal with it “soon.”

What they fail to recognise is this: deferring a decision is still a decision. It is still a choice. And it’s often the worst choice they can make.

The Trap of Delaying Decisions

On the surface, delaying action feels safe. It avoids confrontation. It avoids risk. It buys time. But in reality, it creates a hidden cost that compounds over time.

Consider some examples:

• A business owner sees sales slowing but decides to “wait and see” instead of addressing marketing gaps.

• A founder knows a key team member is underperforming but avoids having the hard conversation.

• An executive hears a major client is unhappy but decides it's just a bump in the road and continues to focus on the day to day.

In every case, the problem doesn’t stay still. It grows. Small cracks turn into fractures. What could have been solved with a simple adjustment now demands a major intervention.

The business ends up paying more, and not just in monetary terms, in time, in stress, in staff happiness, in relationship health.  Why? because the choice to delay was, in effect, a choice to let the problem worsen.

Why Delay Feels Like the Easier Option

It’s worth understanding why smart, capable leaders fall into this trap.

• Illusion of Safety: Doing nothing feels safer than doing something that could be wrong.

• Too Busy: When the key decision maker is overloaded, it’s easier to push big decisions aside.

• Fear of Trade-Offs: Real choices mean committing to one path and shutting down others. That finality feels uncomfortable.

• Short-Term Relief: Deferring provides momentary comfort. The pressure of the decision lifts...for now.

• Ego: Many decisions are what Jeff Bezos calls 'Two Way Doors', in essence the decision can be reversed, however that requires the decision maker to admit they were wrong and ego can get in the way.

But the reality is that avoidance only compounds risk. Problems don’t resolve themselves.

The Cost of No-Choice

No-choice drains businesses in invisible ways:

• Lost Opportunity: Every week spent delaying is a week competitors are moving forward.

• Erosion of Confidence: Teams notice when leaders avoid decisions. It weakens morale and creates uncertainty.

• Financial Damage: Many business problems, from marketing gaps to operational inefficiencies, cost more the longer they are ignored.

In short, failing to choose is tantamount to choosing to fail.

A Tool for Better Choices: The Choice Matrix

Every leader faces problems that demand choices. The danger isn’t in making the wrong call, it’s in making no call at all. Deferring action feels safer, but it’s really just a choice to let the problem grow.

One way to cut through hesitation is to evaluate decisions with a simple Choice Matrix. The idea is to weigh two factors:

• Impact of the Issue / Opportunity: How big is the future downside to the business if this issue or opportunity goes unresolved?

• Ease of Reversing the Decision: If you take action and it turns out to be wrong, how difficult would it be to stop, undo, or adjust?

When you combine these two dimensions, you get four clear paths:

1. High-Impact Issue / Opportunity + Hard-to-Reverse Decision
   These are the decisions only the owner, founder, executive team should own. They involve major stakes and long-term consequences, so they demand careful analysis, data, and alignment.
   Examples: repositioning the brand, firing a key executive, committing to a major acquisition.

2. High-Impact Issue / Opportunity + Easy-to-Reverse Decision
   This is where speed matters most. If the problem is significant and the solution can be adjusted or reversed, delaying is the costliest choice of all. Take action quickly, learn fast, and refine as needed.
   Examples: piloting a new service, testing a marketing channel, trialling a pricing offer.

3. Low-Impact Issue / Opportunity + Hard-to-Reverse Decision
   These can quietly create friction if handled poorly. The stakes aren’t massive, but the difficulty of reversing means they should be handled with caution. Delegate analysis where possible, but review carefully before committing.
   Examples: signing a long-term vendor contract, choosing a new accounting platform.

4. Low-Impact Issue / Opportunity + Easy-to-Reverse Decision
   These are the “decide and move on” choices. Perfect candidates for delegation, because the risk of being wrong is minimal and recovery is simple.
   Examples: picking a project management tool, testing a small promotion, adjusting a workflow.

The value of this matrix isn’t complexity, it’s clarity. It reminds leaders that every problem demands a choice. Some require deliberate, top-level decision-making. Others can be delegated or trialled quickly. But none should be left to drift.

Because the worst decision a business owner can make isn’t the wrong one. It’s the one they put off until it’s too late.

Final Thought: Growth Is About Courage

If you peal away the layers, growth is about courage. The courage to say this matters more than that. The courage to act today, not tomorrow.

For business owners and founders, the courage to choose is what separates businesses that scale from those that fail.

And for those who want practical tools to make better choices, programs like Grow on Purpose exist to provide the structure, frameworks, and support to turn clarity into action.

Because the worst choice isn’t choosing the wrong path. It’s refusing to choose at all.