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Working smart and not working at all
By Charles Martin | June 4, 2009
In this past week alone, I’ve come across a few more entrepreneurs that have figured it out.
Figured what out Hothead?
Figured out that what we’ve always thought was the smart grind is not so smart at all. In fact, I will propose today that at least 75% of you are wasting crucial and important time on a “career” or “job” that won’t fulfill your basic human needs (I’m not talking about food — I’m talking about mental stability and a feeling of place). It’s true. Most of the people I know are spending their golden 10,000 hours on the wrong thing. They’ll find at the nadir of their lives that it was a bad hole the entire time.
When you basically find the place that you can do the least amount of work for the most amount of return, you’ll also find that people clamor for the chum your product or service represents. I met a rock star in the social marketing space last week and low and behold he got there with the most simplest of simple business models. It makes the grief and against-the-grain-struggle us 75%-ers experience everyday seem like a bloodbath. Yes, he does have time spent on the 10,000 hour card, but he’s still building that total. He’s 40-something young.
The most interesting part of this is that what we know as a way to make money and get return on our smarts and education (aka “a job”) is changing very rapidly. It’s changing so fast that most of you aren’t noticing. And guys like the rock star are getting the best seats in the room. Once he and guys like him stake their claim, we’ll all be just filling the seats.
It boils down to working smart. It boils down to saying NO more. It boils down to keeping an extreme focus on what’s down the road and not being so quick to jump on the first bus that stops to pick us up. There will always be folks who decide that “it’s ok” to idle away at a dead end. And there will always be people whose blood boils until they are in the right place. The hunger of the latter has always been what drives the economy in good times and bad. The 4:51AM blinking light only keeps up so many people you see.
I’m up. Are you?
I’m angry enough to change. Are you?
Topics: Mind and Planet | No Comments »