April 13th, 2020
I love this quote by Will Smith:
You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid. You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.
Lately, I've been thinking a lot more about the second sentence, specifically "laying a brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid".
I'm very critical of myself on this - I know that, deep down, I don't lay my bricks perfectly. I cut corners, I'm sloppy, and I'm not very calculated.
This is part of my nature, but it's also because I'm simply doing too many things at once.
The stress of doing too many things is unavoidable as a founder, but I also know that with more focus, and more critical thinking, I can lay my bricks a bit more eloquently.
But, to do this, I need to:
- "say no" to more things.
- I need to delegate way more.
- And I need to stop thinking I can do everything myself.
The "How To Say No" project is a great example where I'm proud of my execution. I was "calculated" with that project. I was able to let go of my ego and ask for feedback from really smart people. I put in the extra work to make it great.
I kept stripping it down to the "essentials", which made it so simple and easy to understand. And that wasn't by accident - that was me sitting down, and staring at the page, ripping it apart and putting it back together again.
This is how I'm treating projects now. Instead of throwing a million things at the wall, I'm going to be more laser-focused. I'm going to execute on it and finish what I start, before I start anything else. Instead of doing 90% and knowing I'll add the 10% later (which I never do), I'm now doing 100% on the spot, even if that takes 8 more hours.
Laying your bricks "perfectly" is everything.