KickStart: I’m a slow walker, but I never walk backwards. Abraham Lincoln
As Home Service Business owners we’re often our own worst enemy. I call these “Displacement Activities” “Entrepreneurial Attention Deficit Disorder”!🤪 (Most business owners are blessed [cursed?] with a frenetic, almost manic energy/curiosity!)
Me? I would have driven good, old Honest Abe nuts! (As I did my long-suffering wife Sioux!) Both in business and personally I ran (not just walked) forward, backwards, and much of the time in meandering energy and time-wasting detours!😥
Then (far too late) I finally learned and (most of the time)🙄 asked this simple 13-word Daily Question to guide my routine every day:
What is MY “highest and best use” TODAY for my family’s future welfare?
NOTE: Before going further, please review Part I of this series on The insidious danger of “Displacement Activities”.
Now bear with me here.🙏 Let’s break down the power of your new, 13-word Daily Question…
1. What is MY…– Introspective self-analysis is brutal. Even so, no blaming your employee Charlie, the economy, your spouse or your sneaky, low-priced competition is allowed here! In this exercise it is all on YOU!😬
2. “highest and best use”– In real estate the four criteria for judging the “highest and best use” of a given property are what is: (1) legally permitted, (2) physically doable (3) financially possible and (4) what provides the best “return on investment”. I suggest you use these four points to analyze “your property” as in your life…
3. TODAY– Yep, my all-CAPS key didn’t get stuck accidentally here again!😁 I often remind my students, “A day is a terrible thing to waste!” Now painfully reflect on your “Personal ROI” over the past 1,825 days (yep, that’s FIVE YEARS) … GULP! “Depressing financially”? But wait! Before coming totally unglued here focus please on the last five words of your new Daily Question…
4. …for my family’s future welfare?– You’ll notice there’s no mention of profit, money, business size and/or your net worth here. I sincerely hope you (at least sometimes) make choices focused on your personal and family happiness instead of filthy lucre! (Not that Sioux and I have anything against acquiring wealth OR even more importantly, the Personal Freedom money should bring!)
OK, now you have 13-word introspective Daily Question that will transform your life… IF you choose to do so. And there’s our common challenge- as entrepreneurs we have virtually unlimited choices! Hopefully you now see that this freedom is truly a “double-edged sword”!
In Part I of this Insidious danger of “Displacement Activities” I warned about the “Busyness Trap”. In this Part II you now have the essential principle of, “What is MY “highest and best use” DAILY for my family’s future welfare?” Finally, in Part III I’ll share 3 Essential Business Areas to focus on with laser-like intensity!
Steve