Joining the 4 a.m. Club Made Me a Stronger Business Leader
The following is adapted from The Case for Culture by Eric Farber.
When I started my law firm, I accidentally joined the 4 a.m. club. Mark Wahlberg, who was at one point reportedly the world’s best-paid actor, and Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, are part of this club, as are many CEOs, athletes, and artists.
Unfortunately, being a member of the 4 a.m. club does not mean I’m meeting these legends under the cloak of darkness. Rather, we each rise at 4 a.m. to allow for time to work, think, reflect, and be creative in the stillness before the world wakes with all its distractions.
If the idea of such an early hour hasn’t scared you off, here’s my take on the 4 a.m. club and why I think it makes people better, more productive business leaders.
An Unintentional Initiation into the Club
I never intended to wake up that early every day. It was pure stress and anxiety that opened my eyes while it was still dark outside. I would try to fall back asleep, but the weight of overwhelm pressed down on my chest and I eventually gave up the fight. By the end of the next day, I was so exhausted that I generally fell back into bed and was asleep by 9 p.m.
Even if stress remained at bay, I still woke at 4 a.m. because I’d had a solid seven hours of sleep. I laid in bed, staring at the ceiling, hearing every creak of the house, and thinking, “What the hell am I doing?” Much of the time, I felt lost at work. I had no idea how to be a good boss or create the firm I envisioned.
Eventually, I stopped staring at the ceiling, got out of bed, and used the time to get curious about my business. I read business articles and research papers. I thought about processes and how we could better serve clients. I considered priorities and the value of various tasks. I reflected on our firm’s efforts. Then, when the sun rose and the office opened, I arrived at work with newfound insights and ideas.
Finding Time to Reflect
Every successful leader I know spends an enormous amount of time in thoughtful reflection. It is hard, lonely work in those dark hours. However, for busy people, it is often the only opportunity to sit alone and reflect on the state of the business. It’s a calm space in which you can escape the phone calls, briefs to get out, multiple meetings, and court appearances.
Do you have to do this at the crack of dawn? Probably. If the only calm time available is from 4 to 6 a.m. before hitting the gym, so be it. The stillness of the early morning allows creativity to soar. It is the perfect time to consider how to grow your business and turn it into the place you envision.
When you’re running a company, you’re essentially running two businesses: the company as it currently is, and the company you are becoming. This takes a great deal of time, so these quiet, early morning hours provide the time required to craft the next steps to merge the current business into the future one.
Visioning Out the Future in the Early Morning
A leader is the person who charts their company’s future, but before you can document your mission, values, and path forward, you must first get clear on what they are. I call this process visioning out.
You could look ninety days into the future, envisioning the company after you’ve fixed a customer service issue, or a year ahead as you test a new marketing or cultural initiative, or even further. The timeline itself matters less than the values you imagine.
As a member of the 4 a.m. club, I have found at least two hours each morning to work on visioning out the present and future of the business. I thought about what I wanted for our customer experience, finances, processes, systems, procedures, growth, and, most importantly, our employees. The more I reflected in these quiet moments, the easier it became to see creative solutions to our challenges.
Start Every Day by Becoming a Better Leader
I encourage you to take advantage of the early morning and join the 4 a.m. club. As you work to solve problems with a calm, clear mind, you’ll find new business solutions, inspiration, and visions for the future, all of which will help you lead your company to success.
Before long, I suspect you’ll wonder why you haven’t been waking up early your entire life.
For more advice on improving your leadership skills, you can find The Case for Culture on Amazon.
ERIC FARBER is on a mission to change how law firms operate by showing lawyers the value of putting culture first. During his twenty-five years as a lawyer, Eric has lived the transformation from scarcity to abundance that becomes possible when you shift your perspective and prioritize people. As the CEO and chief legal officer of Pacific Workers’ Compensation Law Center, Eric’s focus on culture helped him build a seven-figure firm that’s gone from four people to forty in just five years, been an Inc. 5000 company twice, was named to the Bay Area 100 list of fastest-growing companies, and spent two consecutive years in the top fifty of Law Firm 500.
