Thursday, January 3, 2008

Give it to a busy man

I got stuck watching too much TV tonight with the Iowa stuff. So when the Apprentice Celebrity came on I decided to be disciplined and continue reading "The Magic of Thinking Big" by David Schwartz. It's been a while since I read more of it and felt it was necessary to get back on track with my reading.

A few things caught my eye, but the one that sticks out is one that I have heard before: "If you want it done, give it to a busy man."

Now, isn't that quite a statement. It certainly seems to contradict, on the surface, the concept of a 4HWW, right? Maybe. Maybe not! Busy can be interpreted in many ways. To me, this means giving it to the person who is going to deliver. The person who deliver's is naturally busy because that person is a scarce resource. Give it to the busy man...fascinating! That's what accounted for my own personal successes as I was trying to make more money in the early days of my career in the software industry. I simply assumed tasks that others declined, tried to find ways to do things better and NEVER turned down a request to work outside the boundaries of my job description. Indeed, it kept me busy.

Now, I need to figure out ways to accomplish MORE and not be quite as busy. This is where the VA's and other outsource related things come into play. It's about delegating - either to employees, VA's, wife, kids, whatever. It's the difference between being a worker bee and being a leader. Leaders delegate. I've ALWAYS struggled with being a leader. I'm a control freak with a thousand reasons to "have to do it myself." This was the delimna Timothy Ferriss found himself in that nearly led to a nervous breakdown. This week I've had some very good experiences letting OPE (Other People's Efforts) get things done for me. It allows multi-tasking in the true form to take place. Sure, I have to manage the "mini-projects" to some degree, but I'm able to get three or four things done at a time instead of just one or two things had I tried to do it myself. PLUS, the added benefit, I get PROFESSIONALS to do it and rest assured, they CAN and DO do it better than me.

This leads to another concept in "The Magic of Thinking Big" - constantly challenging yourself to be better and challenge traditional thoughts. Everyone and everything can be improved. He writes that successful people don't say "Can I do this better?" but they say "HOW can I do this better?" What a difference the "how" makes, huh?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

hi i like this blog actually i m also plannning to write on this topic & jsut google it & got ur blog. I also read the book magic of thinking big
http://himanshuguglani.blogspot.com/