I was at a business event where I spent some time with New York Times’ Bestselling author Raymond Aaron and he pointed out something really profound. He said ‘most business owners only have a single business so they can afford to be really inefficient with what they do.
I have 40 businesses so I have to be really efficient with how I am with my time’. He went on to say that he has a one-week holiday every month and a one-month holiday every year. So, if you want to focus on anything, start working out the best way to get rid of the jobs you’re doing.
Whenever I sit down with a business owner for coaching, I always start with the end in mind. Their ‘why’. Not long ago I was chatting with one new client about where they wanted to be in five years, and they were struggling a bit to answer as they’d never really thought about it before. To help, I started to ask specific questions to prompt their thinking process, and one of them was ‘how much holiday time would you like to be taking?’ They considered this then replied ‘I’d love to be able to take a week’s holiday.’
I won’t print my exact response, but a sanitised version is along the lines of ‘are you crazy?’ Can you imagine what would have happened had they continued with that line of thinking? Programming this super-computer with the thought that they would like a week’s holiday in five years’ time. More than likely, that’s what they would’ve got and they’d then have been wondering, why, when they’ve worked so hard they can only get a week long holiday after five years.
So think about what it is you’re actually trying to achieve and the main thing is the lifestyle you want, to many times I see business owners who’ve plenty of money but they’re being run ragged by the business, or worse still, not having plenty of money and still being run ragged, if you’re either of these drop me a line and lets chat
By Alan S Adams
