Malaria Taught me to Delegate 🦟

Dear Friends,

“I don’t have time to delegate”

That’s what I used to tell myself. Then I got malaria.

It was back when I was juggling three full-time jobs—building Bitwala, running a web agency, and teaching programming in Ghana. I had convinced myself that every task had to be done by me.

Then, malaria happened.

"You Probably Have Malaria"

"Sounds like malaria," my boss told me one Friday when I was feeling off. He was right.

I spent days in a feverish haze, drenched in sweat, my body aching like I had been hit by a truck. My brain refused to process even simple thoughts. Even watching a movie felt impossible—I’d forget the plot halfway through. Work? Laughable.

But I had so much to do!

Mustering all of my strength, I found I was able to concentrate for about 20 minutes a day. How was I going to maximise that time?

I had no other choice: I had to delegate.

There's Never a "Good Time" to Delegate

So was it a disaster?

Well, it wasn’t perfect, but it worked! My clients didn’t fire me. My startup didn’t crumble. The world didn’t end. It was the first time I realized: the problem was never that I ‘couldn’t delegate’—the problem was that I never even tried.

There’s never a good time to delegate.

There are so many excuses:

⌛ “It’s faster if I do it.”

🚧 “No one else has done this before.”

🔍 “They won’t do it like I would.”

Sound familiar?

The truth is:

• Delegation is scary.

• It’s important, but never urgent.

• There’s never a “good time” to do it.

How to Delegate Without Getting Malaria

Since my Ghana experience, delegation has been critical as Bitwala scaled. Here’s an exercise I use:

1. Make a List

Look at your calendar & to-do list:

• What are your main activities?

• How much time do you spend on each?

2. The Malaria Thought Experiment

Imagine you could only work two hours per day.

• What must you focus on?

• What should be handed off?

• Who could take on these tasks?

3. Make a Delegation Timeline

Now you have a picture of today and an idea of what an extreme version of delegation would look like.

But you don’t have to go from zero to one hundred overnight—make a timeline.

E.g.

📆 Within 1 month: I won’t be involved in sales calls under X value.

📆 By the end of Q3: I’ll fully hand over the hiring process to person Y.

4. Build in Accountability

• Use habit stacking or calendar blocking to review your delegation timeline monthly.

• Share your plan with:

  • The people you’re delegating to.

  • Your co-founders or peers—ask them to hold you accountable.

  • Your coach—because external accountability works.

The Best Leaders Delegate Proactively

"I just have too much to do."

I hear this all the time. When startup leaders run in this “too busy” mode for too long, they burn out—or, at the very least, stop functioning at their best.

• 👎 Bad leaders don’t delegate

• 👌 Average leaders delegate only when necessary

• 🤩 The best leaders delegate proactively

Delegation isn’t about giving up control. It’s about gaining freedom. And the sooner you start, the sooner you can actually focus on what matters.

Ben

P.S. If you’ve ever struggled to delegate, reply and tell me why—I’d love to hear your experience.