Crush It! Or a 4-Hour Work Week?
If you want a real trip philosophically, do what I did. Read Crush It! By Gary Vee and then read the 4-Hour Work Week. It will put you in a philosophical bind.
Crush It! Will tell you that to truly succeed with an online business you need to put your soul into it. You need to know everything and live your business. You need to BE your business. It’s going to take insane work and crazy hours to accomplish but to be truly outstanding is worth the price. Gary is very passionate about it and lives this. Watch a video of his work and you’ll feel it.
Now, watch a video of Tim Ferris. Just as passionate. These 2 are both maniacs. They are insane. They go to extremes in life and they absolutely love their lives. People become devotees of their style. People like John Jonas create entire businesses off the philosophy (teaching people how to outsource their business so they can spend a minimal amount of time on it and do what they love the rest of the time).
Perhaps the most extreme example is the Markus Frind who owns the dating site Plenty of Fish. He based his business on mathematical equations to determine how to match people up, made it free and makes millions. He’s covered in Inc. Magazine and he basically works almost never and plays the rest of the time.
To make it even worse for me I drove 2 hours to attend the Wasatch Business Community workshop and we have a guest speaker on publicity. Or on branding actually. Howard talked about how he is friends with his customers. He went into elaborate detail about the gifts and attention to detail he has when it comes to clients. His top clients get nice perks. I’m sitting there thinking, yes I like people but there is no way I’d want to be friends with all my clients (no offense – it’s just not practical and if everyone is your friend, then no one is your friend). I’ve seen disaster when that’s happened. But it’s brought him a lot of clients and it obviously enriches his life.
So as I’m transitioning to promoting ideas and other people’s products to having my own products, I’m at a crossroads. I need to outsource because I’m getting overwhelmed. I don’t want to outsource because I’m not sure what direction I want to take things. There are all sorts of pulls on me. Be a “guru” with a bunch of URLs with sales letters that lead to my products? Go B2B and partner with firms that have a good following (get my DVD into MarketingSherpa’s store, for example)? Both? What is true to who I am? If I go one way or another am I cheating myself?
All I know is just about every month we go on a mini vacation and a few times a year we go on a bigger one. So I can’t be a Gary. On the other hand, if I don’t outsource some things will just never happen that I need to happen (like getting an affiliate program running before Affiliate Summit).
So I bounce between these extremes. And I’m perplexed by them. And I’m trying to figure out what I want (which is pretty much the norm but I’ve gotten some things down – like I really like vacations but I also like coming home and working on my business).
Now it’s your turn. Have you read these books? What do you think? What’s your advice for me?
3 Responses to “Crush It! Or a 4-Hour Work Week?”
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January 8th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Janet:
I’m a few (OK maybe more than a few) years older than you. Over the course of my career which has principally been in the same industry, I have pondered the same thoughts as you mention in your blog. This is what I have come to realize:
I never achieved anything worrying about what other people say is “the” right thing to do.
I’ve never felt happier than when I was working my butt off doing something I loved (Gary V) and not scamming my way to my next vacation (Tim F).
I’ve always felt more fulfilled when I did something for myself (published an article, blogged about something that interested me, etc.) instead of my boss/job.
It’s OK to NOT light the world on fire or sell your soul to “the man” as long as you can make a decent living, stay jazzed about what you do for a living, have really good friends and if you’re lucky a great partner in life.
There are no bad decisions. You just need to understand and accept the consequences.
You can never do enough, achieve enough or earn enough unless you yourself say it’s enough.
If you find a trusted person to outsource to (this is a relationship that blossoms over time and takes effort to nurture) then understand that maybe she/he won’t do it exactly the same way that you would but maybe they will do it better.
Outsource the stuff you hate. There’s probably someone out there that loves to do those things.
Doing work you really enjoy that helps people in some way contributes to the greater good.
Good luck grasshopper.
January 11th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Michelle,
Thanks for your insights. I’m always trying to figure out the balance for me. Outsourcing isn’t easy for me for the reasons you say and because it takes skill to do it well and find people who do good work.
But doing everything yourself is overwhelming.
I love what I do enough that I don’t want to outsource all of it. To me, work is part of play and I love learning and testing. But TF says that you can start other businesses or organizations for that. However, it’s enough to manage one!
So I’m definitely in the middle and like you will figure it out as I go. Right now I’m in the reflective mode. I have new products that I’ve invested a lot in and trying to see what avenues work. I know both of these models aren’t me – they aren’t who I am but give me some great ideas and resources.
I’ll keep you updated about how it goes on this blog.
-Janet
May 25th, 2010 at 8:33 am
[...] V and making your work your entire life. Or you can be Tim Ferris and pair down work to a minimum 4 hour work week so you can play the rest of the time. You can make your millions connecting with people, updating [...]