When Evan Addams was here with us for his third and final visit, he said something quite profound that struck me. He spoke for a while on “burning out” or getting to spread out while trying to juggle the many hats that he wore at NoWait. And then, towards the end of his talk he made this comment:
What people can I hire or what other services can I buy to let me take a step back and be more of a GM than trying to be the best billing, best sales, best support, best customer success person etc.
In the world of sales, I think this is one of the most important things to hear. As sales people, we will all most likely have an intense drive and competitive spirit. With that often comes the thought that we do what we do the best, and somebody else couldn’t do it as well as us. I happen to fall into that category.
Evan shot that idea down quickly. What he said is simple yet profound, be humble enough to hire somebody or buy a service to do a job better, more efficiently, or more effectively than you do. DUH. But often we don’t see it that way. We see ourselves at the top, having to run aroud like chickens with our heads cut off and do everything ourselves. I wonder if all took a step back and let go of our ego a bit, how much Evans advice would change our lives…
BoweryJE22
It is important to remember that we are all in this together. What i mean by “this”, is LIFE. Everyone is good at different things. Some better at doing these things than others. But i agree, that it is so important to stay humble throughout life because we can’t do everything by ourselves.
This is an extremely valuable lesson. I am the same way in that I struggle at delegating things that I think I can do best. Spreading yourself so thin is not only ineffective but is very stressful. Learning to delegate, and learning who to delegate to is an essential skill in the business world.