The biggest lie that many entrepreneurs buy into is “I can do it better, faster and delegating is a waste of money.”
Boy, does that limit one’s growth. Time is the one resource we all have the same- twenty four hours. How we value each hour is what makes a big difference. One way to decide time allocation is to seek out mentors.
Finding a mentor, or mentors, is a wonderful source of inspiration. Someone who has done it before can better appreciate your feelings and frustrations. Two things I initially look for is, have you (mentor) made a payroll? Have you (mentor) failed? If one has not failed, in my opinion, they have not taken real risk. Failure is an excellent teacher. For me, failures are a better teacher than success. It is painful to fail; no one sets out to do that. It is just the price we pay to better appreciate and be thankful for our success.
There are many resources for us to use. Being comfortable in the experience should be a part of the process. Yet, with each interaction, you should feel stretched. Did you take away one or more salient points that can have immediate impact on your productivity? Write down the worth you took away for the money spent (and more importantly, the value of your time).
A math example of value of time would be the firm does $1,000,000 revenue per month. Ten people contribute to this success; with 20 productive days per month (interruptions, breaks, distractions consume the rest of the days). With an 8 hour day, that works out to 160 hours of potential productivity per month! Divide 160 into $1,000,000- each hour is worth $6,250, about $100 per minute. How much does it cost you to buy you an hour extra of focus time per week?
Mentors can help give you those tools. A few examples that you might consider are:
- Dan Sullivan The Strategic Coach
- Vistage
- Young President’s Organization
- Entrepreneurs Operating System using EOS Implementers. They apply principles discussed in the book TRACTION- Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman.
Talk to your vendors, other business people you respect and read. Today it is easy to get books on tape or Podcast downloads. Make your driving time productive. Back in my “drive around” days, I constantly listened to recordings by anyone who seemed to have a solid message.
Today, I prefer paper and the tactile experience of touching the page. I make notes in the back of the book about items of consequence and put a “dot” next to the paragraph to find it again easily.
Included is a partial list of books that has helped frame my thoughts. American Fathers is my recent rendition of writing my combined experience and wisdom acquired over a collection of both failures and success.
| Missed Fortune | Andrew, Douglas R. |
| The Declaration of Independence | Applewood Books |
| The Constitution of the United States | Applewood Books |
| The Book of Excellence | Baggett, Byrd |
| Friendship Marketing | Baron, Gerald |
| The Great Depression of 1990 | Batra, Dr. Ravi |
| Selling the Invisible | Beckwith, Harry |
| The Genius of the Beast | Bloom, Howard |
| A Demon of Our Own Design | Bookstaber, Richard |
| Slouching Toward Gomorrah | Bork, Robert H. |
| Making Our Democracy Work | Breyer, Stephen |
| Transitions | Bridges, William |
| How to Run Your Business So You Can Leave It in Style, 4th edition | Brown, John H. |
| Laid Back in Washington | Buchwald, Art |
| First, Break All the Rules | Buckingham, Marcus & Curt Coffman |
| Now, Discover Your Strenghts | Buckingham, Marcus & Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D. |
| The Coming Economic Earthquake | Burkett, Larry |
| Strictly Business | Cahoone, David K, & Larry W. Gibbs with Michael R. Nall |
| Managing Upside Down | Chappell, Tom |
| Start-Up Smarts | Cohen, Barry H. & Michael Rybarski |
| Capturing Customers.com | Colombo, George |
| Readings in Financial Planning | Cordell, David M. & Barbara S. Poole, editors |
| The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People | Covey, Stephen R. |
| The Talent Code | Coyle, Daniel |
| Flawed Giant | Dallek, Robert |
| Your Money: Frustration of Freedom | Dayton Jr., Howard L. |
| The Doctor’s Wealth Preservation Guide | DeFrancesco, Jr., J.D., Roccy M. |
| Straight Talk Book No. 6 – The Value Habit | Deloitte Development LLC |
| Contrarian Investment Strategies: The Next Generation | Dreman, David |
| Managing in the Next Society | Drucker, Peter F. |
| The Pirates of Manhattan | Dyke, Barry James |
| The Power to Connect | Easler, Teresa & Chuck with Mark Cosgrove |
| Nation Builder | Edel, Charles N. |
| American Titan | Eliot, Marc |
| Crash of the Titans | Farrell, Greg |
| The 10-Minute Marketer’s Secret Formula | Feltenstein, Tom |
| Driving to Perfection | Fielkow, Brian L. |
| Getting to Yes | Fisher, Roger & William Ury |
| The Rise of the Creative Class | Florida, Richard |
| Money | Forbes, Steve & Elizabeth Ames |
| The World is Flat | Friedman, Thomas L. |
| Nuts! | Frieberg, Kevin & Jackie |
| How to Close Every Sale | Girard, Joe with Robert L. Shook |
| The Tipping Point | Gladwell, Malcolm |
| David and Goliath | Gladwell, Malcolm |
| Outliers | Gladwell, Malcolm |
| Customer Satisfaction is Worthless – Customer Loyalty is Priceless | Gitomer, Jeffrey |
| Unleashing the Ideavirus | Godin, Seth |
| The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual | Goldstein, Norm editor |
| How to Hire and Develop Your Next Top Performer | Greenberg, Herb & Harold Weinstein & Patrick Sweeney |
| The Streetcorner Strategy for Winning Local Markets | Hall, Robert E. |
| The Federalist Papers | Hamilton, Alexander & James Madison & John Jay |
| Hammer | Hammer, Armand with Neil Lyndon |
| The Road to Serfdom | Hayek, F. A. |
| Pay Checks and Play Checks | Hegna, Tom |
| The Decision Makers | Heller, Robert |
| Double Double | Herold, Cameron |
| Iacocca an Autobiography | Iacocca, Lee with William Novak |
| The $10 Trillion Opportunity | Jackim, Richard E. & Peter G. Christman |
| 136 Effective Presentation Tips | Jeary, Tony & David Cottrell |
| Blue Ocean Strategy | Kim, W. Chan & Renee Mauborgne |
| Creative Capitalism | Kinsley, Michael, editior |
| Ford, The Men and the Machine | Lacey, Robert |
| Thou Shall Prosper, second edition | Lapin, Rabbi Daniel |
| The Corporate Athlete | Loehr, Jim & Jack Groppel |
| Real Estate Investment Trusts | Lucia, Raymond, CFP |
| Surviving the Storm | Lunney, James with Larry Chambers |
| Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive | Mackay, Harvey |
| Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt | Mackay, Harvey |
| The Handbook of Financing Growth, 2nd edition | Marks, K.H. & L.E. Robbins, G. Gernandez, J.P. Funkhouser, D.L. Williams |
| What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School | McCormack, Mark H. |
| The Breakthrough Company | McFarland, Keith R. |
| All Business is Show Business | McKain, Scott |
| The Advisor’s Guide to Money Psychology | Mellan, Olivia with Sherry Christie |
| Free People, Free Markets | Melloan, George |
| Selling with Integrity | Morgen, Sharon Drew |
| Andrew Carnegie | Nasaw, David |
| The Next Step for Business Owner | Nieman, Nicholas K. & Andrew D. Horowitz |
| Unique Ability Creating the Life You Want | Nomura, Catherine & Julia Waller |
| Prodigal Press | Olasky, Marvin & Warren Cole Smith |
| Citizens of London | Olson, Lynne |
| Managing Management Time | Oncken, Jr., William |
| Cowboy Ethics – What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West | Owen, James P. |
| Money Talks | Peter Pauper Press, Inc. |
| In Search of Excellence | Peters, Thomas J. & Robert H. Waterman, Jr. |
| Camelot and the Cultural Revolution | Piereson, James |
| Business Valuation Body of Knowledge | Pratt, Shannon P. |
| Business Valuation Body of Knowledge Workbook | Pratt, Shannon P. |
| Free Cash Flow and Shareholder Yield | Priest, Willaim W. & Lindsay H. McClelland |
| Selling Your Business | Robb, Russell |
| Top 10 IRA Mistakes | Royer, David F. |
| The Wall Street Journal. Complete Retirement Guidebook | Ruffenach, Glenn & Kelly Greene |
| The Trouble with Mutual Funds | Rutner, Richard |
| Dirty Little Secrets | Sabato, Larry J. & Glenn R. Simpson |
| Big Data Baseball | Sawchik, Travis |
| Financial Truths for the 21st Century | Schutz, Ronald P. |
| Beyond Majority Thinking | Schutz, Ronald P. |
| Fierce Conversations | Scott, Susan |
| The Forgotten Man | Shlaes, Amity |
| You Can Make It But Can You Keep It? | Sierk, III, R. Wesley |
| Managing Foundations and Charitable Trusts | Silk, Roger D. & James W. Lintott |
| The Advocate | Singer, Sandy |
| Private Capital Markets | Slee, Robert T. |
| The Advisor Century | Sullivan, Dan with Gordon Arlen |
| Margin | Swenson, M.D. , Richard A |
| The Black Swan | Taleb, Nassim Nicholas |
| Strategic Steps to Building Your Web Site | Taylor, Ed |
| First Principles | Taylor, John B. |
| Worldwide Laws of Life | Templeton, John Marks |
| The Money Masters | Train, John |
| Integrated Generosity | Trewitt, Mark |
| Grow Rich Slowly | Underwood, Don & Paul B. Brown |
| American Tempest | Unger, Harlow Giles |
| The Team Success Handbook | Waller, Shannon |
| Built to Sell | Warrillow, John |
| Locking Arms | Weber, Stu |
| America’s Fiscal Constitution | White, Bill |
| Traction | Wickman, Gino |
| Breaking the Rules | Wright, Kurt |
| The Prize | Yergin, Daniel |
| The Commanding Heights | Yergin, Daniel & Joseph Stanislaw |
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