With a great team, good systems its amazing hot little time you actually need. I was always envious of the CEOs that I would read about that had time to go home for dinners with their families, didn’t work on weekends. Wow! I though.
Now I can see how that could work in a well established company. Startups I think have an inherent scarcity built in – the the leadership team is so overtaxed at the beginning that there is no time for all those things I mentioned above. However, when a business reached a certain level of maturity, those kind of ‘heroic’ efforts are no longer necessary.
I read that somewhere that if you run your business on ‘heroic’ efforts – its not a long term scalable solution. Businesses for long term CANNOT run on heroics but rather, on systems, processes. Working everyone 12 hours a day doesn’t yield a good company – when its needed great – but its short term. So, in a way, I smarting to think of a startup company like a 100m race – you give it ALL you got, maybe a bit more – the 110% – its short, powerful and sweet – BUT it can only cover the first 100m. Mature company is like a 20km run – you don’t start to fast, you don’t go to slow, you pace.
I can also see from the perspective of time, that the first startup is the worst one – you just don’t know what will come. Doing a 2nd startup or 3rd would be much simpler – because the template for general evolution of a startup would be similar.
So, all this musing came about, because I have a new site coming up, I’m taking on more responsibilities and things are moving forward – and somehow I’m killing myself to do it – and neither is anyone else in the company! Feel very right – long live the mature (post startup) business.
Anyways – personal side – had a chance to work on my DreamBoard – had it scheduled this week and managed to do it. I’m heavily investing into myself as of late – because from now on it will no longer be stamina that will move the company forward but creativity and brains. To get those, you need to be in the right space.
So, my dream board for 2009/2010.
Personal Goals: Learn Chinese, stay organized, keep on being silly, personal power, keep the brain sharp – both left and right side.
Business goals: Grow the business, make lots of money, have happy employees (by sharing the money! and building a cool company)
Stuff: Less stuff – do the Japanese thing on go minimalistic – stuff means responsibility – but I still want a jet and pool villa
Well Being: Exercise, get into shape – climb the Fuji again, and do the Everest base camp next year – hence get into shape. Keep up the good healthy eating habits and get some good sleep.
Family: Keep on hiking, adventures and aim for a great relationship. Spend time together.