What if you had to work long hours for 3 years, but could then kick back and not have to work ever again? Is that something you’d agree to?
I recall back in 2007 reading the book, The 4-Hour Workweek. Amazing that book is still relevant today, even though the premise is often misunderstood. About 15 years ago I was at a conference with the author, Tim Ferriss, speaking to our group. Many hours after he spoke I bumped into him. Smiling I noted that he’s probably working more than 4 hours this week. He smiled and said, “The 4-Hour Workweek is a concept.”
A concept? I thought about that for weeks. What’s the concept? It’s so clear to me today, after reading the book again. Think about the 80/20 principle as a concept. You’re familiar with this concept?
It goes like this, “a small number of your actions produces the lion-share of your results.” It’s not always 20% of your actions nor is it always 80% of your results. However the concept is actually a “law.” Like “gravity” is a law you can depend upon, 80/20 is both replicatable and repeatable. It is an undeniable truth.
It might be 10% of your actions or 30% of your activities and actions, but some small number of your efforts drive the vast majority of your results. In my case, for example, back when Tim Ferriss told me “it’s a concept” I realized that of the 29 new clients I acquired that year, generating $1.66MM in annual revenue, just 6 of those clients generated $1MM of that annual revenue every year. WOW!
So, I realized that huge doors swing on small hinges. I began applying to 80/20 to literally every challenge in my business. When encountering an impossible project or problem I’d remind myself that it will always be 20% of my efforts that will generate 80% of the ultimate solution. It’s a concept!
Then I realized the reverse was also true. I could forget 80% of the actions we planned for implementing this project or resolving this problem, and it would reduce the outcome by just 20%. An almost BIGGER concept.
Long story short, I realized that while a 4-hour workweek for a business owner like me was unrealistic, the concept finally sunk in for me. By identifying the 20% of my actions that predictably drive 80% of the results, I could eliminate nearly all other actions with very little impact.
Finally, by investing each week exclusively performing only those “20% activities” for 40-hours every week, it only took me 34-months, and then I’d have Financial Independence after that.
I finally figured-out what working smarter not harder meant. I could never figure that one out, but by working hard, doing only the most productive activities, ignoring or delegating the less productive actions, I had to work just about 3-years. After that I could go to the beach, or whatever I wanted, for the rest of my life as my business continued generating 7-figures a year in revenue.
The question stands, would you work for hard 3 years if you could kick back after that?
Responses