1st Order Activities
““Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing to add, but when there is nothing left to take away” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry”
Ever wonder why someone like Jensen Huang seems “zenned out” while running a multi-trillion-dollar company?
Okay, it’s a little facetious to not weigh your scenario to Jensen’s equally — but all high performing CEOs share this practice.
When you’re starting your business, you’re wearing all the hats: putting out fires, juggling tasks, and scrambling for traction — I get it.
If you’re coming from a corporate background, you’ve likely seen bureaucracy and red tape get in the way of real work.
So much to do, to plan to do, to review to do (to review the planning of what to do) — that very little doing ever gets done.
But as an entrepreneur, your responsibility is eliminating unnecessary complexity.
And here’s the dirty little secret:
you can let the little fires burn if you’re focused on what matters most.
Ask yourself: What makes everything else work?
Because a lot of things simply don’t matter.
At its core, your focus should be on these three things:
- A product or service to sell
- A way to tell people about it
- Keeping the first two functioning
Tasks will always pile up, demanding your attention.
But elimination should be your default, not addition.
Here’s what I do: audit the past week.
And if something doesn’t contribute to:
- Making your product/service better,
- Reaching or deepening connections to more people,
- Supporting the first two…
Cut it.
Focus on what matters.
Let the rest burn.
— And, if you’d like to find the next book to help you get better at making your product better or telling more people about it, head over to readar.ai
Keep Seeking,
Michael
readar.ai
