“Safe and familiar leads to small and inconsequential. The more you insist on escaping pain and difficulty, the more you become trapped in your own tiny universe – the walls close in.” – Bob Riding, The cost of comfort
Whenever I begin a startup project with a new partner I explain the following. Out here, there’s no one to hold our hands and pickup for us when we drop the ball. Furthermore, there’s no one to push us but us, and no one to make this work but us. In corporate America, we’re trained to waste our time being busy instead of being efficient. In the world of make-your-own-way, it’s important to play a bit differently.
Forget 9 hour workdays. Forget Tim Ferriss’s 4 Hour Work Week. How much time do you spend actually being productive?
Forget your to-do list. Have you met my dear friend Pareto? The Pareto principle is also known as the 80-20 rule, but I take this one step further. Choose the single most important thing that you could do for the success of your project and do it. I can guarantee it’s not the fun part, and it would probably keep slipping down your list until your project was a failure, not because it was a poor idea but because you never did what mattered.
“When you organize your life to avoid doing all the uncomfortable stuff, your world shrinks.” – Bob Riding, The cost of comfort
Where’s your to-do list? Go get it right now. Find the most important thing on the list. Why didn’t you do it today? It doesn’t matter. Do it now. Don’t wait. When you’re done with that priority task, you’re free to go.
“Do it now. When you’re done, you’re free to go.” – Geoffrey Hale
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