“The marketing priorities of a large company looks something like this: Pleasing The Board Of Directors Appeasing Shareholders Satisfying Superiors’ Biases Satisfying Existing Clients’ Preconceptions Winning Advertising And Creative Awards Getting “Buy In” From Various Committees And Stakeholders Making A Profit”
“As entrepreneurs we have a “can do” mindset. This often means that when something needs to be done, we are tempted to just roll up our sleeves and just do it. However, spending a lot of time doing things that aren’t your area of expertise or aren’t a good use of your time can quickly become a very expensive exercise. Remember, money is a renewable resource—you can always get more money but you can never get more time.”
“Struggling business owners will spend time to save money, whereas successful business owners will spend money to save time. Why is that an important distinction? Because you can always get more money, but you can never get more time. So you need to ensure the stuff you spend your time on makes the biggest impact.”
“So essentially you can cut out 80% of the stuff you’re doing, sit on the couch eating nachos instead and you’ll still get most of the result you’re getting. If you don’t want to sit on the couch chowing down on nachos 80% of the time, then doing more of the 20% stuff is your fast track to success. And in this context success = more money with less work.”
“Look at any profession where the stakes are high and you’ll see a well-thought-out plan being followed. Professionals never just wing it. Doctors follow a treatment plan. Airline pilots follow a flight plan. Soldiers follow a military operation plan. How would you feel about engaging the services of any of the above professions where the practitioner says to you “screw the plan, I’ll just wing it.” Yet this is exactly what most business owners do.”