The Core Four of Entrepreneurial Success – Part 2

It’s been said that life is like a river. If that is true, then business is like Class 5 rapids.

You can assure safe passage through today’s turbulence, while making progress to your destination of success, when you keep the Core Four principles in mind.

Here is the second in the series of posts.

#2 – Releasing What Is Not Yours To Do (aka, Let It Go)

I started life as an entrepreneur with a system, a book, and a recording.

The system was called Day-Timer which got me in the habit of looking at my day as a whole, making sure I never missed an appointment. Being rather scattered and opportunistic as a young businessman, the system of reviewing my day was critical to maintaining focus. Day after day, year after year, the Day-Time never left my possession, until it was replaced by a new system.

Ultimately my system has become the latest form of digital assistance which now inhabits the electronic devices that populate my work environment.

The specific system you choose is not as important than this principle: no system will work unless you work the system. Use anything, but make sure you develop the habit of using it!

The book, Alan Lakein’s How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life, got me thinking of the critical question, “Is this the best use of my time, right now?” Powerful thought, because if I could not answer “Yes,” then I had to stop doing what I was doing and get engaged in what would be the best use of my time.

The recording was Earl Nightengale’s “Lead the Field.” In it he spoke of the 80-20 Rule and the most important business advice ever sold. The 80-20 Rule states that on a list of the 10 most important things you need to do today, 2 of them contain 80% of the value from completing the list. Accomplishing the other 8 represents only 20% of the value you’ll achieve by completing the items.

The advice is simple: Rank order your 10 most important tasks you need to do today and begin working on number 1. If you already know this, good! But did you do it today? If not, the advice doesn’t have the benefit you can gain immediately by sticking to this principle.

Make Today Count

Through the decades, a lot of priority management systems, time management books, and recorded programs have come into vogue and faded away. But if we distill it all, the core of what remains is this:

I do what is mine to do right now. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Busyness is the norm. The urgency of the immediate will always grab for your attention. Any activity you engage in—off the core focus of what you must do today—is a distraction. Let it go. Get back on task.

The one person you must be most accountable to, is you. Only you can determine where your attention goes. Where your attention goes, your energy flows. Make sure it flows in the direction you are headed.