Figure out what’s yours and what’s someone else’s

As an entrepreneur—especially when you’re small or just starting out—it can feel like there’s so much to do.

You have to learn to write, to sell, to create a landing page, to do customer research, to record and edit videos, to create content for social, maybe a podcast … there’s just so many things. And that’s not even counting the actual teaching or coaching or what have you.

It’s a lot.

The key, though, is to know what of this is yours to figure out, and what is someone else’s to figure out.

Me, I’m not an “ops” guy. I’m not someone who’s good at—or enjoys—figuring out all the details that go into the running of a company.

And while I'm a great software engineer, I'm not great at building or managing a team of software engineers.

That's where other people come in.

It's awesome to see how much better our product and engineering organization has gotten in the past couple of months.

They're crushing it on new features, small improvements, and bug fixes. We just released our mobile app! And they're constantly improving their processes and their work.

It's a joy to behold.

And what's best is they're doing so much better than if I were trying to manage it. Or even trying to do this stuff myself.

I grew up getting a lot of praise for being smart and being good at figuring out how to do things. So my tendency is to learn it, figure it out, do it myself.

But that's only going to get me so far.

Same for you.

What are those old patterns that served you well at one point, but now are holding you back?

What are the things that you shouldn't be doing, that you need to let go of, and have someone else do for you?

It can be scary to invest in getting the help you need. Good people tend to cost a lot of money.

But it pays to make the investment.

The job gets done much better, you're happier, and you can focus on things that you do enjoy, and where you can add a ton more value.

What's the next thing you need to let go of and hand to someone else?

Love,
–Calvin