We’re approaching the mid point of February in the year of our lord 2021 / 1 A.C. and we’ve vaccinated approximately 10% of the U.S. population with an initial Covid vaccine. If you think that opening line is boring, life is pretty boring now isn’t it? 3% of the population stands fully vaccinated. We’ve had emergency FDA authorization for the Pfizer & Moderna vaccines for about two months and America stands 5th worldwide in vaccinations per citizen.

…Is that any good? We’re at war with a virus. But it really doesn’t feel like it.

We’ve been buried at home in this pandemic for a year with the time and resources to plan for an effective immunization rollout plan. For reference, Israel leads the worldwide race to immunity with 65% of its population having received at least one shot.

It feels like we lack a sense of urgency.

Are there manufacturing limitations? Do we need more volunteers? We should be desperate! We are desperate! What will it take to get to around the clock appointments 7 days a week to get to immunity? Is that even the plan?!? Nobody knows! Our schools are closed, small businesses are suffering, and we seem to be moving…quite slowly.

It’s so frustrating, right? Even a little un-American to act with such little urgency?

Similar conversations happen every day inside of our companies. Why are the production schedules so slow? Why is marketing moving at a glacial pace on their product launch? Why can’t sales close more deals? There are countless ways to address these problems, most of which demand directional progress toward a solution. There are rarely silver bullets.

However there is one strategy that can consistently help put the odds a little more in your favor. Move with a desperate sense of urgency!

Have you ever been to the website Relentless.com? Go ahead, click it. It redirects to the Amazon homepage. George Packer’s New Yorker profile explains it further if you’re up for the read. Following the “retirement” news of the indomitable Jeff Bezos last week it is worth acknowledging that maybe one of their secrets over the years, its original name and enduring philosophy, was a key ingredient in their success.

Sometimes urgency is inspired by a noble mission. Other times it’s a culture of intensity that permeates an organization. Frank Slootman, Snowflake CEO, calls it increasing velocity in a widely circulated LinkedIn post. He would challenge his employees to deliver work on a tighter timeline just to increase the collective organizational tempo.

What do the best companies and leaders do to take leadership positions and win markets? They put the hairiest challenges within their line of sight and lay down a gauntlet to attack those problems. The only way is through. For those that think the market most determines the success of a startup like Marc Andreessen, one might serve up the counterpoint that it’s people who move with the necessary urgency to seize those opportunities. Markets know no urgency. They can never teach you the relentless pace needed to become and sustain as a market leader.

Only people can facilitate urgent adoption of products within markets. And only people can drive a desperate sense of urgency to tackle the biggest challenges. Maybe you too have been motivated by our lackluster response over the past year. We’ll all need to turn up the tempo this year inside and outside of our companies to address these shortcomings in the days and months ahead. May the immunity be with us!