Worthy trades

I was mowing the grass over the weekend, and something dawned on me.

Something you don’t hear bizdev influencers talk about on the ol’ social timeline…

…But something super-important while building a business that doesn’t make you want to put pins in your eyes.

So I was thinking:

“I’m here cutting the grass and next week I’ll need to do it again. Same lanes, same yards, same corners, same machinery, same cleanup, same maintenance, on repeat.”

And we could ‘delegate it all away’, where we do none of it - find a service provider, never have to do it again, buy your time back, yada-yada. And that would be “efficient”. But that’s not what we do. We get help here and there but we do most of it ourselves, even though we could pay someone to work our land all week for just a couple hours of my consulting time.

But why do we choose to do it when we can just “leverage it away”? And what’s this got to do with building a business you love?

Well, it’s got to do with remembering to do stuff you actually WANT to do. Or with feeling satisfied with a job well done. Or getting better at your craft. Whatever brings you joy, y’know?

I’ve built products and services for like, 20 years or something, and I’ve always been happiest when I’ve remembered this truth, and saddest when this was lost for whatever reason.

So the take-away is this:

Don’t copy-trade others. Don’t allow people in your life, home, or even social timeline that tell you your happiness isn’t a worthy trade.