Key takeaways:
- When you are overloaded with admin tasks that are detracting from your job, its time to ask for help and learn to delegate (I have a great book recommendation to help you get there!).
- Starting and running a business is stressful: a stable home life with a partner who understands and supports you will give you a strong foundation through the toughest times. This is one of the greatest life cheats ever!
- Learning doesn’t end with graduation. You can get new insight, ideas and strategies for the price of a book, thanks to a long list of experts who have poured their wisdom into those pages.
A lot of you may be aware of productivity coach Mark Struczewski and his popular show, The Mark Struczewski Podcast. Also known as Mr. Productivity, Mark has been recording episodes since 2017.
I recently had the honor of appearing as the guest on one of those episodes. And I have to tell you that recording the show is as exactly as fun as it sounds.
Mark and I talked about cheat codes for life: real, achievable steps we can all take to make our lives more successful. When you boil it down, my top top cheats revolve around recognizing that none of us can achieve our goals alone. We all have to rely on other people, in different ways, to get where we want to go.
Based on this episode of The Mark Struczewski Podcast, here are the a few of best decisions I have made thus far in my short life for the sake of my productivity, why I’m grateful for my wife every day, and how to keep being a student of the world.
1. Find help that enables you to do the work you need to do
A lot of us are raised to think that admitting we need help is a sign of weakness. But knowing when you simply can’t manage everything you need to do by yourself is an underrated skill.
The solution? Ask for help. And when you find the right people to help you, empower them to get the job done.
One of the best business decisions I’ve ever made was letting go, which is freaking hard. It was reading Who, Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy that convinced me to take the leap and find the right WHO’s to aide in my world domination. The book is about the importance of delegation, and how it can make you more effective, not less.
I realized that I was so busy doing admin work like setting up meetings, replying to emails, returning calls and getting way too involved in the day-to-day operations of multiple functions that I was neglecting the higher-level tasks that only I can do. As Dan Sullivan puts it in his latest book, “10x is Easier than 2x”, I was putting all my attention toward the 80% of tasks that don’t matter! Now I know that my team is taking care of daily operations, I can focus on the 20% of business that is responsible for over 80% of the profits and long-term strategies.
As of this update, I have 5 business entities in which I am the Managing Member/Owner of 4 of them and an Executive/Owner of a 5th with 8 direct reports. Now I will be the first to tell you that this is entirely too much on my plate, however, I don’t do much in terms of day-to-day operations. I have unbelievable WHO’s who get the job done each and every day.
2. A supportive home-life is the foundation you build your success on
Not a day goes by when I don’t think about how lucky I am to have the greatest wife ever. (Sorry to all the other wives out there.)
Leigh Ann is wonderful in so many ways, and my journey back to school illustrates exactly why she’s my rock.
When I was 29, I decided to get my MBA. I’d put it off a few times, because I wanted to get real-life experience. By 29, with some of that real-life experience behind me, I was at a point in my career where I felt like it was the right time to go back to school.
Only problem was that real-life experience now included my wife, two jobs, and two kids under the age of three. (We’ve since added another one to the mix.)
That’s where Leigh Ann came in. She held down the home front while I spent every Saturday from 7am to 5:30pm in a classroom looking at dozens of case studies, business law (fascinating), accounting (briefly), statistics (woof, but cool) and organizational behavior (much more interesting.)
I have generally positive feelings about the MBA experience, maybe you could argue my feelings are mixed (judge me for yourself and read about here.) But I am absolutely certain that I couldn’t have graduated without Leigh Ann’s love, support, and infinite patience.
Your work life and your home life are more intertwined than many people understand. I would argue that in today’s hyper-technological world it is impossible to separate the two. I was much easier when an executive would quite literally leave all their work on their desk each evening, but today I have 6 email addresses, 3 ways to text me and 24/7 availability. Heck I even share my location with a handful of people! If your partner resents the long hours you have to put into your business, and the instability that comes with being an entrepreneur, you have a tough challenge ahead on multiple fronts.
Find a partner at home who supports your work and your career goals, and show them you appreciate them always having your back. Shouting them out in a podcast helps. Even though I doubt Leigh Ann has ever listened 😉
3. Never stop learning
I call myself a career student, because I believe that no one person can ever know everything, which means there’s always more to learn.
You have to keep pushing yourself to find new information, ideas and strategies, for life and business. Nobody is going to do it for you and also nobody is going to push you! You have to find the will within to continually learn.
Sure, there will be a few unicorns you know who have wisdom and encouragement that can help you move forward in your career. But you don’t have to personally know someone to learn from them. I’ve learned so many things from experts in all different fields just from reading their books, listening to their podcasts, watching them on YouTube and following their Instagram accounts.
I like to download the audio books and listen while I’m working out or pushing my kids in their stroller. With the books that strike me as the most useful, I’ll buy the physical version and scribble and highlight all over it: whatever you need to do to get the information to stick in your head.
I read about 60 books a year and keep a running tally of that list on this site, check it out.
A paid college education has new competition – the internet. You can get every piece of a college education from the intern, for free! If you want to learn a new skill, the internet can teach you, all you have to do is do the work. Be a career student and never settle.
Want more cheat codes and business and life advice? Email me!
Last Update: 11.30.2023