If you’re the owner of a business that’s SO successful…
• You sometimes feel like the business owns you!
• You find it hard to get away
• You feel like if you do take time off, it’ll hurt your business…
I have something I want to say to you.
You’re hurting your business by NOT taking more time off.
Dan Sullivan, who has been coaching entrepreneurs for over 40 years, talks about “The Ceiling of Complexity.” This is the barrier most entrepreneurs hit once they’ve finally squeezed everything they can out of their 80-hour work weeks.
Dan’s radical advice to them: “Take time off!”
Dan argues—and research backs him up—that free time gives the body, mind and soul time to rejuvenate and reenergize.
Let me ask you: When do you do your best work—when you’re fresh and rested, or when you’re frazzled and tired?
You know the answer. Yet how often do you find yourself working well beyond your peak energy times, churning out poor work at greater and greater cost to your business, your family, your own health?
Fortunately, we’re not obligated to stay on this unhealthy path. Sullivan tells overworked entrepreneurs to develop a Multiplier Mindset. Here is a sampling of his advice:
• Focus on vision (and you’ll multiply progress). Your vision is the intersection of what you believe could happen with what you wish would happen.
What are you really passionate about in your business? What unique contribution can you make to your customers and marketplace?
Your vision is you, at the top of your game, accomplishing that thing.
Begin with that vision, and work your way backward to where you are now. Ask yourself, “How do I get from here to there?”
• Focus on delegation (and you’ll multiply income). There is only so much of you to go around. And you know what it feels like to be spread too thin.
Delegation is the obvious key to getting “un-busy.” So, why do so many business leaders fail to delegate? Some are too busy to think about it! Many reason, “No one else will do it like I would.”
Here’s the problem: If you refuse to delegate a task until you can train someone to do it just like you, you’ll be doing that job for a long time. Dan’s expert counsel? Delegate any task someone else can do 80% as well as you do.
• Focus on strengths (and you’ll minimize weaknesses). Your strengths are the things that you are both good at and that are good for you–they give you energy. Sullivan calls these “unique abilities.”
Here are three tests to identify these strengths: (1) I’m good at it; (2) It’s helping me achieve my vision; (3) No one else in my company can do it as well as I can.
If you’re honest with yourself, this should be a pretty short list. Your goal should be to focus 80% of your time and energy on this short list of unique abilities, Delegate everything else.
If you’re interested in more of Sullivan’s ideas, check out his website: www.strategiccoach.com.
The big takeaway: Your exhausting business-owner lifestyle will never change until you make some changes.
When you let go and do less, you’ll actually accomplish more.
Argent Advisors, Inc. is an SEC-registered investment adviser. A copy of our current written disclosure statement discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request. Please See Important Disclosure Information here.
