In my many years of building businesses from scratch,
the most effective habit I carved into my daily routine
was what I call the 20% reflection.
Contrary to the flurry of task completion
and constant hustle,
I found myself allocating a fifth of my time
not to doing, but to thinking.
This was not the popular meditative reflection,
but a structured strategic review
of my actions and their outcomes.
I noticed that my peers were often caught
in the trap of efficiency without effectiveness.
They executed tasks swiftly,
but lost sight of whether those tasks
were the right ones to pursue.
The 20% reflection is about stepping back
to evaluate if you're climbing the right mountain
before you reach the summit exhausted,
only to realize it was the wrong peak all along.
Here's the approach,
treat your time as an investor treats their capital,
always seeking the highest return.
For every hour worked or decision made,
dedicate 12 minutes to critically assess its impact.
It's not about questioning yourself into a standstill,
but ensuring that you aren't blindly following convention.
Most businesses sprint in circles.
I chose to walk in a straight,
albeit unconventional line towards objectives
I had verified as valuable.
Another piece of advice I can pass on relates to networking.
The secret isn't attending every mixer
within a 50-mile radius.
It's identifying individuals with expertise
so central to your goals
that investing in those relationships
provides a return no conference could ever yield.
Think of it as targeted networking.
Often, this meant forgoing large events
in favor of deep conversations with just one person
whose expertise was leagues ahead
in a domain I needed to understand.
These relationships often became pivotal
in navigating the business terrain.
Lastly, people often confuse complexity
with sophistication.
I focused on simplifying, not complicating.
When presented with a business model,
a strategy or a product,
I stripped it down to its essence.
If it couldn't be explained simply,
it was often because it wasn't understood well enough.
This isn't to dismiss complexity but to control it.
Simplicity is digestible and more importantly, executable.
In closing, you may find these practices
opposing the bustling entrepreneur's archetype
but they've been instrumental in my journey.
If any of this resonates with you,
I encourage you to subscribe for more insights
that stray from the beaten path
but have weathered the test of intense business realities.
Share this if you know someone who could benefit
from a perspective that challenges the norm
in favor of what's effective.
Thank you for investing your time with me.