Most people think they deserve something big for working hard. But is this just desire or is it really an entitlement?
More and more people are being judged by the results of what they produce; not the effort they put into it.
Sure there are still jobs where you put in your time and you get paid. You put in extra effort and you get paid more. The relationship is pretty linear… and finite.
When you are an entrepreneur or business owner the relationship is not linear.
The market doesn't owe you anything for hard work. There are no labor laws to hide behind. You are on your own to make it, or not.
If your business is contract work then there may be a linear relationship between effort and income supposing you can keep the work coming in.
If you are just going to get paid a wage for each hour you work you are not an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is about leverage.
You build a business that can scale to some degree. That provides something remarkable to the market such that people seek you out. You employ or contract others to do some of the work. It is not about the raw hours you put in. It is about the results you show to customers.
The goal is to build something that generates multiples on your effort. Eventually, you may not even need to be working in the business depending on your objectives. Certainly, you want to have a choice for your investment of time, money and sweat.
It is about doing the right work. The work that needs to be done to move your business forward. You need to align your efforts with your end vision, your goals and your plans. Most importantly it is about taking action on your planning.
Planning does not need to be formal. It can be a rough plan that changes over time. It can be in point form. The important thing is that you know what it is and can tell whether the work you are actually doing is moving you forward or is just busy work.
An entrepreneur needs fire. The drive that keeps you going and can motivate others. The focus that keeps the end-goal in sight… and keeps you improving.
As you grow you need to communicate the vision, goals and plans to your teams. You need to be certain that what they are doing is helping your business do the right things. It is easy to become caught up in the busy work and even easier the further you are from the vision.
But many owner operated businesses do just that. They get caught up in the busy work and start believing that if only they had more time, they could get the business going where it needs to go.
Guess what, time fills up just like your hard drive. Not everything on the hard drive is important to the same degree. And not everything you do with your time gets you the results you need.
You can do the business execution process (vision, goals, plan, action) on scraps of paper, in Word or Excel, or you can use more sophisticated software to help you and your team get results.
But the important thing is that you do it.
Getting the results you want in business is about knowing where you are heading and taking the action to get there. Effort can be important, but only the right effort.
