How to Do More with Less
“Are you serious?” I asked him.
“Dead serious,” he replied. “At any given time, they have 20 or more versions of their website running simultaneously.”
I looked down at my 4 pages of notes. In the last 35 minutes, my friend had mentioned machine learning, the dark web, bitcoin, the inner workings of the DMV, and most recently — Vista Print’s web analytics.
All these topics are brand new to me.
(But I learn most from conversations in which I am hanging on for dear life)
“This isn’t A/B Testing… it’s the whole alphabet.” I winced a little at my dumb quip. “How do they even find new things to test at this point?”
“It’s pretty easy,” he said.
“It’s all they have.”
I used to worry about what I didn’t have.
I didn’t have money or followers or good network. I didn’t have a clear writing voice. I didn’t have enough pizza for lunch. I didn’t enough money for a new ______. I didn’t have a cool jersey accent or a clever haircut or a logo or a catch phrase.
I didn’t have a good computer. I had a Dell 550 or something which crashed when it became stressed about doing too many things like opening the start menu and a web browser at the same time.
Here is what I had:
- A wife who needed me.
- A coach and editor who demanded my best.
- A little talent.
- Desire.
Later, I have:
- Great friends who do incredible work.
- Millions of people reading what I write.
- A #1 story on CNBC.
- Four times more followers than the population of my hometown.
Sometimes those people ask me questions.
Here is the answer to most of them — I don’t know.
I am supposed to be setting you up for a list right now. Most of it sits in cobbles down there. I’m about to delete it all, which means you’ll probably never read my great joke about Amazon Prime.
Because as it turns out, doing more with less doesn’t require bullet points.
Here’s the formula:
Focus less on more. Focus more on less.
For me, “less” includes today. That’s pretty much it. Tonight I will die and be reborn in the morning — an entirely new creation. New thoughts, new ideas, new world, new challenges.
But all that can wait.
Much love as always,
— Todd B
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