Mindset for Thinking Creatively
I started a new book this week entitled, “10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less” by Dan Sullivan. The first quarter of the book focuses entirely on your mindset. Sullivan tells readers to ditch brainstorming efforts centered on ways to work harder or to refine current systems to squeeze more productivity out of yourself or your business. Instead of just trying to double your productivity or profit, Sullivan challenges you to imagine 10-times-better growth. Because the number of things you could do to be 10-times-better are very few, you can’t just hustle a little bit more to achieve such exponential growth. You can’t just use your time more wisely to produce 10x more productivity. You actually have to stop doing what you are doing today and do something new to reach that level of achievement.
It is a really interesting way to think about things. I admit, I don’t often naturally think this way. I naturally think that a little bit more hustle will pay off; trimming things a little bit leaner will produce dividends. To combat this 2x mindset, protect your regular leader thinking time: an uninterrupted block of time in which you allow your creative imagination to flourish. Most entrepreneurs are holding themselves back because they are absorbed in their day-to-day task load. Dan Sullivan points out, "tightly scheduled entrepreneurs cannot transform themselves."
Challenge yourself to disregard your current operating environment and consider:
with my current assets and my current skillset, how could I get to 10 times the income?
Or, how could I multiple the lives of those I am able to help by 10 times?
What will get me there?
That’s when creativity really ignites. Sullivan says that thinking like this will force you to focus only on your top 20% activities - and entirely cut out your other 80% - and start doing 80% new activities. Furthermore, you have to be in the right mindset in your leader thinking time to come up with those new 80% activities.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also take this opportunity to point out an important common theme highlighted in each of the last three books I have read: Buy Back Your Time, How to Hire, and 10x Is Easier Than 2x. Each of these authors emphasize the importance of this concept of grading your talent.
· Make sure you are very clear about who your A, B, and C players are in your organization.
· Recognize the importance of not only hiring top talent to your organization, but furthermore ensure you are teaching your top talent how to think and you are holding them accountable to thinking that way.
· You are never going to be an extraordinary leader unless you have extraordinary people on your team. And extraordinary people only hang around extraordinary people. So, you MUST continue to refine your team until your team is comprised of extraordinary A-players.
Each of these authors attests to finding lots of opportunity on the other side of evaluating their teams and grading them.
Success leaves clues.
You only have to be brave enough to follow them.
Written by Schuyler Williamson
REALTOR. Leader. Veteran. Business Owner. Investor.
Weekly Email List: https://www.schuylerwilliamson.com/weekly-leader-note
God Bless!
~ Schuyler Williamson