Buy Back Your Time: Freedom and 5 Time Assassins
I started a new book this week entitled, Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire by Dan Martell. Similar to myself, Martell is a serial entrepreneur and founder. In his book, he asserts that the one real hurdle to scaling your company and growing rich is TIME, and that how you use your free time will make or break your success. In my most recent reading, Martell covered how designing the freedom to engage in the high-value work that brings your energy and fulfillment hinges on your ability to evade the “5 Time Assassins.”
The Staller: You sabotage your own success by hesitating on big decisions.
2. The Speed Demon: You make rapid decisions, such as hiring the quickest/easiest/cheapest option. Then you find yourself in the same position all over again.
3. The Supervisor: You fail to properly train, micromanaging others, failing to empower them to grow and learn.
4. The Saver: You have money in your bank account but don’t understand the value in spending it on growth opportunities. You let it grow like a nest egg instead of investing it in your business. You see every opportunity as an expense only.
5.The Self-Medicator: You turn to food, alcohol, or other vices to reward yourself when you have success. In turn, the consequences of engaging in these vices reduces or limits your productivity. Then you rush to the same destructive activities to escape failure or pain.
I love Martell’s brilliant assessment of why people commit these five time assassinations. He cites extensive research that proves a majority of successful startup founders grew up in very chaotic environments. Their ability to handle adversity was refined over their entire lives, starting at a young age. This background gives them the ability to operate comfortably in chaos. The problem is that these leaders will furthermore look [subconsciously] for ways to manufacture chaos. They won't feel at ease unless there's a fire to put out. Martell's list of the five time assassins represents the five most common ways entrepreneurs create chaos for themselves.
"Entrepreneurs can also become so accustomed to stressful and unknown environments that they become downright addicted to chaos."
I tend to agree that most entrepreneurs thrive in chaos. When you are building a business, generally with a small team in the beginning, everyone wears multiple hats and you are forced to solve problems quickly – often on the fly. As the leader – the ring-leader of the chaos – you are the calming influence during a chaotic time. But as your company grows and scales, you need to move from that I-am-okay-with-chaos culture to a culture of steadiness.
I feel so strongly about the importance of steadiness that I am currently writing a book about it entitled, The Steady Leader. Steadiness is truly the foremost trait a leader must exude and live by. Every leader will have to move into this steady leader mindset at some point or another – whether it be for their family or their business.
Personally, I overcome these five time assassins in my pursuit of freedom. This starts with becoming very self-aware and being committed to personal health. When you know who you are, and you are spiritually, mentally and physically healthy, you can be free from the pressures of the world that push you into one of these five behaviors. You won’t succumb to worry about the future; you won’t let the fear of messing up disrupt you; you won’t let the fear of losing money affect your ability to make great decisions. When you are free from outside influences, you rely on your values and guiding principles to make sound decisions. You stick to your decisions; and if you fail, you see it just as another opportunity to refine your decision-making process. It is not catastrophic. You don’t have to go self-medicate because you failed. You take that failure as an opportunity to thrive in the future.
This freedom is a process to develop – you don’t get it overnight. It’s not some light switch you just turn on. Through practice and then committing to overall health, you can live this freedom. Then these things that create chaos become less chaotic. And when you are ruled less by chaos, you can be that steady leader people really want to work for, and you will propel your company to the next level.
If your growth is slowing, pay attention to these five time assassins. Don’t let them create chaos – even subconsciously – in your business. Label them. Diagnose them. Ask yourself, why am I operating this way? What freedom do I lack? How can I instill that freedom into my life so that when I am approached by this scenario again, I don’t default back to one of these time assassin-type behaviors?
Let your pursuit of freedom from the world’s influences guide you to a lifestyle of steady leadership.
Written by Schuyler Williamson
REALTOR. Leader. Veteran. Business Owner. Investor.
Weekly Email List: https://www.schuylerwilliamson.com/weekly-leader-note
God Bless!
~ Schuyler Williamson