Stephen Bartlett

And it's usually not one thing. It's many small things that, when added together in aggregate, create the outsized returns. Sorry, that was a little pompadour. I just get violent about skill acquisition because that's what it takes.

I want to do my best shot at operationalizing what you just said for somebody who's listening. When we encounter this issue, we have a specific process that we go through. And so we tell the founder, I want you to make a Google Sheet, really simple, and I want you to have the time slots from 5 a.m. to midnight, however long you work, in 15-minute increments.

I want to do my best shot at operationalizing what you just said for somebody who's listening. When we encounter this issue, we have a specific process that we go through. And so we tell the founder, I want you to make a Google Sheet, really simple, and I want you to have the time slots from 5 a.m. to midnight, however long you work, in 15-minute increments.

I want to do my best shot at operationalizing what you just said for somebody who's listening. When we encounter this issue, we have a specific process that we go through. And so we tell the founder, I want you to make a Google Sheet, really simple, and I want you to have the time slots from 5 a.m. to midnight, however long you work, in 15-minute increments.

And I want you to set a timer, easy timer, kitchen timer, like for cooking, for every 15 minutes. And every 15 minutes, I want you to, when it dings, I want you to write down what you did. One or two words, doesn't take a lot. Now, as soon as I say that, people are like, oh my God, I don't have time for this.

And I want you to set a timer, easy timer, kitchen timer, like for cooking, for every 15 minutes. And every 15 minutes, I want you to, when it dings, I want you to write down what you did. One or two words, doesn't take a lot. Now, as soon as I say that, people are like, oh my God, I don't have time for this.

And I want you to set a timer, easy timer, kitchen timer, like for cooking, for every 15 minutes. And every 15 minutes, I want you to, when it dings, I want you to write down what you did. One or two words, doesn't take a lot. Now, as soon as I say that, people are like, oh my God, I don't have time for this.

I will promise you, it will be the most productive week of your life because you will be aware of how you're spending your time. Every time I do this, I immediately think I should do this all the time and I don't. So just do it. Just do it for the one week, okay? And so what happens is you'll do it for a whole week

I will promise you, it will be the most productive week of your life because you will be aware of how you're spending your time. Every time I do this, I immediately think I should do this all the time and I don't. So just do it. Just do it for the one week, okay? And so what happens is you'll do it for a whole week

I will promise you, it will be the most productive week of your life because you will be aware of how you're spending your time. Every time I do this, I immediately think I should do this all the time and I don't. So just do it. Just do it for the one week, okay? And so what happens is you'll do it for a whole week

And then what the second step of this is you'll look at that and you'll say, okay, wow, I didn't know that 40% of my time is dealing with this thing. And I can hire a role to handle 40% of my time for this amount of money, right? if I had 40% of my time back, I could double this business. And that would be worth significantly more than what I'd pay this person.

And then what the second step of this is you'll look at that and you'll say, okay, wow, I didn't know that 40% of my time is dealing with this thing. And I can hire a role to handle 40% of my time for this amount of money, right? if I had 40% of my time back, I could double this business. And that would be worth significantly more than what I'd pay this person.

And then what the second step of this is you'll look at that and you'll say, okay, wow, I didn't know that 40% of my time is dealing with this thing. And I can hire a role to handle 40% of my time for this amount of money, right? if I had 40% of my time back, I could double this business. And that would be worth significantly more than what I'd pay this person.

And then you look at the next 15% of your time and you're like, okay, is this something that I can give to somebody else? Can I push this down? Can I create some process around this that can correct it? Or do I need to keep eating it for a little bit until it's enough that it's a full-time role? And so fundamentally, I see the entrepreneur as...

And then you look at the next 15% of your time and you're like, okay, is this something that I can give to somebody else? Can I push this down? Can I create some process around this that can correct it? Or do I need to keep eating it for a little bit until it's enough that it's a full-time role? And so fundamentally, I see the entrepreneur as...

And then you look at the next 15% of your time and you're like, okay, is this something that I can give to somebody else? Can I push this down? Can I create some process around this that can correct it? Or do I need to keep eating it for a little bit until it's enough that it's a full-time role? And so fundamentally, I see the entrepreneur as...

the many-headed fractionalist that you continue to pull things under your plate until you have enough that you can ship it out to somebody else full-time. And being aware of, again, the one resources we have, which is time, how we're allocating it so we get the highest return. And so if you look at the stack of time as an entrepreneur, we are always getting paid for our time.

the many-headed fractionalist that you continue to pull things under your plate until you have enough that you can ship it out to somebody else full-time. And being aware of, again, the one resources we have, which is time, how we're allocating it so we get the highest return. And so if you look at the stack of time as an entrepreneur, we are always getting paid for our time.

the many-headed fractionalist that you continue to pull things under your plate until you have enough that you can ship it out to somebody else full-time. And being aware of, again, the one resources we have, which is time, how we're allocating it so we get the highest return. And so if you look at the stack of time as an entrepreneur, we are always getting paid for our time.

Kind of the premise of the whole talk here is that we trade our time for dollars. And so we always... The whole process of entrepreneurship is continuing to trade up what you're trading your time for. And that's like at the most foundational level, that is all we're doing. And so to take this as a hypothetical, your business doesn't need you.