Everyone loves a fast deal. It makes you look decisive, daring, maybe even a little brilliant. The press eats it up. Shareholders cheer. And yet—like rushing through a meal only to end up with heartburn—speed in acquisitions often creates more problems than it solves.
The irony is that patience, the unglamorous cousin of speed, usually delivers stronger, cleaner, longer-lasting results. And if you happen to run something as sprawling as a holding company, patience isn’t just wise; it’s survival.
There’s a strange adrenaline that comes with chasing deals. Executives feel like race car drivers: hit the gas, swerve past competitors, and claim the prize. The problem? Acquisitions aren’t races. They’re more like puzzles dumped out of a box—you don’t solve them by jamming pieces together in a frenzy.
When deals are rushed, the story usually goes like this: excitement blindsides judgment, numbers get skimmed instead of studied, and suddenly the “dream buy” turns into an expensive migraine.
Patience slows things down. It lets you ask, “Wait, does this really fit what we’re building?” instead of “How quickly can we sign the papers?”
A business, on the surface, can look like a shiny new car. Nice paint, polished chrome. But under the hood? Maybe there’s an engine that rattles like a can full of screws. Without time, you’ll never know. Patience gives room for real due diligence—the kind that finds debts, shaky contracts, or that one lawsuit nobody mentioned.
Buying a company isn’t about collecting trophies. It’s about alignment. Will this acquisition make the bigger machine stronger, or will it jam the gears? Without patience, you risk forcing mismatched parts together and wondering later why nothing runs smoothly.
Speed screams desperation. Sellers hear it, and suddenly their asking price grows wings. Patience tells a different story. It says, “I don’t need this deal. I want it if it makes sense.” That calm confidence shifts the balance, and funny enough, it often brings the price back down to Earth.
Fast deals almost always cost more than they should. Buyers get swept up in hype, afraid someone else will grab the prize, and they end up paying top dollar for something that isn’t worth it. It’s like bidding at an auction after two glasses of wine—sure, you win, but at what cost?
A rushed acquisition can skip the boring but essential digging. Pending lawsuits, unstable suppliers, fragile customer loyalty—these things hide in the fine print. Skip the fine print, and you buy the mess along with the business.
No spreadsheet can tell you if two companies actually work together. Cultures clash in ways that numbers don’t reveal. Rush into a deal, and suddenly you’ve got engineers glaring at marketers, managers tripping over each other, and employees wondering if they should update their résumés. Patience gives time to test the chemistry before forcing the marriage.
Acquisitions shake the ground beneath employees. Fast deals drop change on their heads with no warning, and panic spreads. Slow deals, on the other hand, leave room to explain what’s happening and why. Fear shrinks when communication is steady.
Anyone who’s ever tried to merge two email systems knows it’s not a flip-of-the-switch job. Now multiply that across accounting, HR, sales, and IT. Integration is messy. Patience means planning, testing, and smoothing the bumps before they turn into craters.
Blowing an acquisition in public view hurts more than the balance sheet. Customers lose trust, employees lose faith, and investors lose confidence. Patience helps you avoid that embarrassing stumble. Better to be boring and steady than headline-worthy for all the wrong reasons.
It’s easy to get lost in numbers and strategy, but acquisitions are full of people. Workers with bills. Customers with habits. Managers with egos. Treating it as “just business” misses the point. Rushing makes people feel like pawns. Taking your time makes them feel seen, respected, and more likely to stick around. And retention? That’s half the battle in making any acquisition actually pay off.
Now, to be clear: patience doesn’t mean twiddling your thumbs. It’s not procrastination. It’s actively waiting—checking the details, weighing the fit, preparing the landing pad before the plane arrives.
The danger, of course, is tipping into endless hesitation. That’s analysis paralysis, and it kills deals just as surely as recklessness. The art is in the balance: not so fast you miss the warning signs, not so slow you watch the opportunity drift away. Think of it like making bread. Yeast takes time, but leave it too long and it collapses.
Each patient acquisition makes the next one easier. You learn, you refine, you build a stronger foundation. Instead of juggling a handful of mismatched companies, you create a portfolio that clicks together like a well-built machine.
Patience compounds. Costs stay reasonable, risks stay visible, employees stay loyal. And in the end, your reputation grows—not for being flashy, but for being solid. And solid wins in the long run.
So why don’t more leaders embrace patience? Pressure. Investors want quick wins. Boards want headlines. Leaders want to look decisive and bold. Fast deals deliver that sugar rush.
Patience, by comparison, feels dull. But here’s the twist: true leadership isn’t about looking bold in the short term. It’s about building something that doesn’t fall apart later. And that takes guts. It’s harder to say “not yet” than “sign now.”
Acquisitions are thrilling. They can transform a business overnight. But speed, no matter how glamorous, comes with traps that patience avoids. Slow down, dig deep, test the fit, and plan the integration. In the long run, patience doesn’t just edge out speed—it leaves it gasping in the dust. So next time the urge to rush kicks in, remember: fast deals win headlines. Patient deals win futures.
Ryan Schwab serves as Chief Revenue Officer at HOLD.co, where he leads all revenue generation, business development, and growth strategy efforts. With a proven track record in scaling technology, media, and services businesses, Ryan focuses on driving top-line performance across HOLD.co’s portfolio through disciplined sales systems, strategic partnerships, and AI-driven marketing automation. Prior to joining HOLD.co, Ryan held senior leadership roles in high-growth companies, where he built and led revenue teams, developed go-to-market strategies, and spearheaded digital transformation initiatives. His approach blends data-driven decision-making with deep market insight to fuel sustainable, scalable growth.
