Work on your business, not in your business.

Back in 2019, I learned about the idea of “working on your business, not in your business”. It absolutely blew my mind, and I think every entrepreneur and creator should understand this distinction.

Working in your business is working on day-to-day tasks and stuff for customers and clients. Working on your business is working on long-term strategy, deep thinking, and figuring out new hacks and game plans. That’s why entrepreneurs like Bill Gates go on Think Weeks, to be alone and work on their business, not in their business.

While I haven’t gone on a Think Week yet (although I plan to soon), I try to spend time everyday alone in a quiet place working on my business, not in it. For me, the distinction looks something like:

The next few days of low Slack messages and client emails make it the best time of the year to work on your business, not in your business. Ok yes, maybe spend some time with family too, but now is the best opportunity of the year to think deeply about your business or creative career.

9 questions I’ll be reflecting on over the next week:

1. What were the best books I read this year? What lessons can I apply to my business and career?

2. Do I have the proper systems in place to hit my goals? What do I need to add or remove? More cold DMs, more vids/day, etc.?

3. What are my anti-goals for 2024? What should I avoid?

4. What high-leverage partnerships can I start next year? Who can I collab with on for videos? Where can I write guest posts for free?

5. What’s the 80/20 of my content and business right now? What 20% of inputs are driving 80% of the followers or dollars in?

6. What non-business things are affecting my business? Sleep, diet, phone addiction, etc. How do I fix this ASAP?

7. What type of people do I want to spend more time with? What about less time with?

8. What would I need to do to achieve my 2-year goals in 6 months? How can I go make that happen?

9. How can I increase my luck surface area and serendipity? How do I put myself in situations where I meet cool people doing cool things?

I’ll be sharing my answers to the above questions in a solo podcast exclusively for Cyber Patterns Premium members on Wednesday.

Upgrade for FREE. The link only works until Tuesday night 😉

MEMES OF THE WEEK

Thanks for reading nerds.

Create some cool shit this week.

Jason Levin