Recently, I’ve come across a lot of articles and posts discussing what things help individuals find success. They interview high-powered public figures and CEO’s of fortune 500 companies trying to pitch you their secrets to “success.” As much as I do believe that people who run successful businesses are useful sources of information I do think we all need to accept that they are still human. They are still able to be wrong about some things.
Yesterday, I stumbled across and Q-and-A session of a business man who co-founded a few of the most successful American dating sites on the web. While it was an interesting read, and did contain a lot of information that explained the mechanics behind his business, there was one question that stuck out for me.
“You’ve owned and sold many successful companies. What are some of you best productivity tips?”
Here’s the answer to that question.
“I view every minute as [precious] and try not to waste time doing anything that isn’t productive or very enjoyable.”
On the surface, that’s pretty good advice and I’m sure most of us would love to live our lives just like that. However, it’s not very realistic. Is it? For most of us out there, we are required to dedicate at least some of our precious time to activities you don’t enjoy nor could be considered “productive.” I know right now, I have two traffic tickets sitting in my back seat just waiting for me to go to traffic court. Now unless you’re sadist or a lawyer (which is basically the same thing) nobody likes going to court, nor do I think it’s a very productive way to use my time. Rather, it’s something that has to be done. Should I just not bother with those kinds of thing? The voice in my head says no. Maybe instead we should look at it like this:
“Your time is precious, and you are the only person who can decide what an effective use of your time is.”
That means if I get home from a long day of work and need an hour to just sit and stare at a TV; that’s okay. You’ve decided that this is an effective use of your time. As long as you approach everything in moderation, you will find that you live the life you want to rather than the life you think you need to live.
Some people will probably say, what does this person know? I bet they don’t even own two yachts. What kind of authority is he for how I should spend my time. You know what, that’s fair. But there are very successful people out there that I think would agree with me. Another recent q-and-a with Ben and Jerry from this Ice cream company, whose name I can’t seem to remember at the moment, talked about what their current jobs were like at the company as they were not involved in the day-to-day business.
“The central work of my job consists of portraying the person known as “Jerry.” –Jerry
To me, that epitomizes what I said above. Here we have a very successful person who is just trying to be themselves. And, while I can’t guarantee it will make you millions, I think it may go a long way in making you happy.