20% of your time and energy determines your success – what are you doing with your 20%?
It’s the year 2000. The company I was running at that time was technically bankrupt. We were standing on the precipice of extinction. Debts were greater than assets and by all accounts – we had negative equity – we were bankrupt.
It was a very tough time for me. As a 27-year-old entrepreneur, I had managed to build up a business and then put the company into this tough position for a whole series of reasons. But likely the most important reason was how I was spending my time and what I was doing on a day-to-day basis.
So faced with impending doom, I did what any entrepreneur would do – I went to the Bank of Mom for a loan. I gave it to accounting and said, “Sprinkle this out across all the vendors that we owe money to. I am going to Australia.”
I jumped on a plane and went to Australia for 6 weeks, which is an awfully long time, but I knew we could stave off the immediacy of what was coming for at least 6 weeks.
After 3 weeks in Australia, I focused in on the problem. Until that point I’d managed to do a good job of avoiding thinking about what was waiting for me at home.
But one day, I was on a bus going to Townsville on the coast of Australia and a cyclone came in. We were on a long highway and the water started to fill up on the road until it came up to the top of the bus tires. We couldn’t go anywhere.
With nothing to do but think on this bus, I reached in my backpack and grabbed a book – The E-Myth by Michael Gerber – and started reading.
I ended up with a whole new perspective on what I needed to do and how I needed to behave.
When I got back home I changed a lot of things. I started listening and I got a mentor.
Over time, what I came to learn is something called “20%ers” based on the Pareto Principle, which says that 20% of what you do drives 80% of your results.
It’s only a fraction of your day, your week or even your month that matters. There are likely only 2 or 3 key decisions you’ll make in a year that will influence your business – one way or the other.
Once I got clear on my where I spent my time, the company got clear and this completely changed my trajectory.
Figure out your own 20%ers
#1. List Your Weekly Tasks
Write down all the tasks you performed from a single week. Include everything from picking up the dry cleaning to putting together a strategic presentation for a major corporation. You’ll have a big list.
#2. Ask Yourself Two Questions
• What am I good at?
• What do I enjoy?
The more you do of what you are good at and what you enjoy, the more successful you’ll be.
Go through the list and check off everything that you are both good at and that you enjoy. That will leave you with a long list of things you are neither good at nor enjoy – nor do you aspire to be.
#3. Ask Yourself Three More Questions
Make sure you ask these in the following order of priority.
What can you delete?
These are things you will never do and no one else in your company will do either.
What can I delegate away?
It needs to be done but it won’t be you.
What can I defer?
Not everything has the same priority. Focus on the things that will have the biggest benefit and do those first.
If you can fill your days with things you are good at and that you enjoy, and then surround yourself with people (contractors, full-timers, part-timers) who are good at and enjoy the things that you don’t, then I guarantee that you’ll change your own trajectory.
My own 20%ers are:
• Carry the vision, build the culture (lead)
• Pass down the stories (teach)
• Get external (learn and promote)
• Plan, budget, review and revise (inspect)
Summary
When I look back at that time in my life, understanding what 20%ers were and applying them to my daily activities absolutely changed my trajectory. I believe that everyone can zero in on their 20%ers. If you spend as much of your day on this as possible, it will change your trajectory too.
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