The “Productively Lazy” Entrepreneur’s Guide to Freedom
Freedom Firm Insider #003
Ever watch a “lazy” entrepreneur?
They’re more successful than most. They seem to work less than most. They get more done than most.
How…?
I’m guessing you’d like to work less, get more done, and have even more success, so let’s look at the patterns of “lazy” entrepreneurs.
Four key shifts of “LAZY” entrepreneurs
Shift #1 >> Don’t fuss over perfection
Hello my perfectionist friends…
This is a biggie.
Perfection repels profit and eats time.
Lazy entrepreneurs know that 80% or 90% good now almost always beats 100% “perfect” tomorrow.
Unless you’re a rocket surgeon, there is like a “good enough” threshold in your work.
Does that mean cutting corners… no!
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It does mean that the impact difference between 80% good and 100% perfect is usually close to zero.
And the cost to go from 80% to 100% is often more than the cost to go from 0-80%.
Unless it’s life or death, approaching perfection doesn’t pay.
(And, oh by the way, there is no “perfection”…you never get there anyway.)
Lazy entrepreneurs zero in on the 80% that makes a difference.
Here’s a real world example from two of our clients…
One started our book writing program 30 days ago.
She got after it.
Followed the process.
Focused on the 80% impact.
Finished writing her book a week ago (less than 30 days).
Started marketing it while still writing.
And, already landed a dozen meetings with potential clients.
Imperfect but “good enough” action attracts–especially action + speed attracts people and money.
The other client has been sitting on a perfectly good 90% version of his book for 18 months…
Every few weeks there’s another “Should I tweak this? Should I tweak that?” question.
I estimate those questions have cost him a million bucks over the last 18 months in lost opportunity.
This isn’t about doing sub-par work at all.
It’s about being clear on the result you want and doing only what’s needed to get the result.
Which brings me to Shift #2…
Shift #2: Focus on needle movers
Are you asking these questions once a week?
What do I want to accomplish here? (Be specific)
If I could only do one thing to get what I want, what would I do?
Too often we’re doing a lot of “stuff”…
There’s definitely activity…
But little forward motion.
Sidebar: I walk uphill on a treadmill (12-degrees up) a couple of time a week. Lots of effort and sweat doing that over the last two years…I still haven’t found the top of that hill!
Lazy entrepreneurs are clear about what they want, and they’re not ashamed to say it out loud.
More importantly, they unapologetically focus on doing what’s needed to get there.
If it’s not moving the needle on what they want, they either drop it or get someone else to do it.
Shift #3: Value time over everything else
Lazy entrepreneurs value their time over everything else.
Sounds harsh maybe, but they understand this reality…
That every other part of life exists inside of time.
Money making. Relationships. Leisure and fun.
They also understand that the world is filled with time vampires who are perfectly happy to steal all of your time.
(If you allow them.)
This is my #1 trap…
And, we all have a #1 trap.
The key is knowing your strengths and your weaknesses; expanding on your strengths and building systems to short circuit your weaknesses.
For me, it’s calendar guardrails (deep work, away from the office from 7am-9am) and an EA who’s better at saying “no” than I am.
Shift #4: Leverage, leverage, leverage
Lazy entrepreneurs prioritize leverage.
Leverage is a word that’s thrown around a lot in business circles, but let’s get a definition.
Naval Ravikant says there are 3 kinds of leverage:
– Capital
– Content
– Code
I think this is great frame for choosing things that give you leverage.
Capital…
* Can buy your time back (team)
* Can work without time (assets)
* Can buy shortcuts (tech, experts, etc.)
Content…
* Can spread your ideas without you being there
* Can build relationships at scale
* Can capture and hold attention
(Hint: putting your best ideas into a book creates massive leverage in business development overnight.)
Code…
* Can automate work
* Can encapsulate decision-making
* Can scale impact exponentially
* Code leverage used to be hard…
With AI there are no more excuses.
This week, I built an AI executive assistant that knows my current priorities, searches my email, Slack, our project database, everything… and surfaces what needs to be done.
It schedules the stuff only I can do for my 7 am- 9 am deep work blocks (and even preps me for it).
It creates delegation instructions for everything else that I can send to the team.
We build a “lazy” execution plan for the week together. Then I just ask it what’s next all week. I stay on track. And Grace, my amazing EA, is freed up to move the needle on other projects.
(If you’d like me to do a workshop in the future on how to create this for yourself, reply to this email and say “AI Leverage” in the subject.)
One last thought for you today…
This isn’t about being lazy. It’s about being productively lazy vs. being busy.
Impact comes from creativity, and creativity lives in the margins… the free time you’re not busy.
Want to make a real impact? Be a lazy entrepreneur.
Steve “productively lazy” Gordon
P.S. IMPORTANT: Don’t miss Thursday’s free Freedom Focus Workshop. We’ll identify the #1 constraint in your business interactively. You’ll walk away knowing exactly what’s currently constraining the business and what to do about it.
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