Start Now.
David Hieatt on why you should use your time wisely. And begin before you are ready.
Your time is limited. Remember that.
Each day you’re given 86,400 seconds from the ‘Time Bank’. Everyone is given the same. There are no exceptions. Once you make your withdrawal, you’re free to spend it as you want.
The ‘Time Bank’ won’t tell you how to spend it. Time poorly spent will not be replaced with more time. Time doesn’t do refunds.
Time is your biggest gift. Indeed, it is more valuable than money as you can make more money, but not more time. But there is one simple truth: Your time is limited. And one day you will go to the bank and it won’t have any more for you. And it will be at this exact moment that you will know the answer to this simple question: Did I use my time well?
Did I do what mattered most to me? Did I find my love? And did I pursue it like a wild hungry dog?
Begin before you are ready.
There’s a point on a runway during take-off that a plane reaches V1 speed. Once it passes V1, it has reached the point of no return. The point where take-off cannot be aborted. It has to take off. Or crash. In order to determine its V1 speed every plane will factor in its weight, wind-speed, weather conditions, slope, length of runway etc. So although there’s not a physical line drawn on each runway, it’s there.
But when it comes to starting a business, there’s no calculation to tell us when the right time is. No marker on a runway for us.
So what happens? We defer. We put barriers up to justify not starting. ‘The economy isn’t great.’ ‘I’ve got a big mortgage.’ ‘I need more experience.’ But as you put those barriers up, only you can tear them down.
There will never be a right time to start. Accept it. So start now.
99% of businesses fail for one reason.
They don’t start. The start line is the scariest place. Step beyond it and you can be judged. Step beyond it and you can fail. Step beyond it and you can no longer hide behind what might have been.
Most people talk about starting something one day. But ‘one day’ doesn’t ever come along. They don’t get past the start line. Their ideas are probably good enough to succeed. But their belief isn’t strong enough.
The patent office doesn’t hold the best ideas. They sit in the back of your head waiting for you to believe in them enough to start.
Once you pass that line, you are in the 1% club. Those rare people who turn their ideas into real things. Boom.
Want to do more? Rest up.
We all want to get as much stuff done as we can, but maybe we are going about it the wrong way.
An experiment in the 1940s measured men loading pig iron onto train freight cars at The Bethlehem Steel Company. Each man didn’t stop until they managed 12 ½ tons. By noon, they were exhausted and could do no more.
The next day, they were told to load the pig iron for 26 minutes. Then rest for 34 minutes. They rested more than they worked. At the end of the day, they had each loaded 47 tons. That’s almost 4 times as much as working flat out.
It feels counter-intuitive, but a sprint followed by an even longer rest will deliver better results than plodding along for years.
Yup, the real badge of honour at work is not to work longer than anyone else, but to work smarter than anyone else.
Building a great company just takes time.
David Hieatt is not a theorist. He has built brands from nothing with next to nothing just by understanding a few basic rules. After leaving Saatchi and Saatchi, he built howies into one of the most influential active sports brands of the last decade. After selling it to Timberland, he co-founded The Do Lectures, which takes place in West Wales, California and Australia. More recently he started Hiut Denim Co in his home town of Cardigan. A town that used to have Britain’s biggest jeans factory. Hiut Denim’s purpose is to get 400 people their jobs back. David is also the author of Do Open: How a simple email newsletter can transform your business (and it can), published by The Do Book Co.
Extract from Do Purpose: Why brands with a purpose do better and matter more. by david hieatt. Copyright © 2014 by David Hieatt. Published by The Do Book Co.
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