How to Kill the Entrepreneur in You? Strive for Efficiency.
Or a minute of self-torment.
Oh, how I suffer from my inefficiency! The agony is indescribable.
Sound familiar?
A wasted day. Nothing accomplished.
Your brain gnaws at you—what kind of person are you? Useless, worthless, dumb, incapable, INEFFICIENT.
Everywhere you look, everyone seems super efficient, days planned to the minute, achieving everything, getting results. Four hours a day, a week’s work in an hour, focus, concentration, results, success.
The harsh truth, bro.
Everyone lies.
It's simple - we're human.
With our virtues, vices, and flaws. Everyone wants to be or appear better.
So yeah, everyone’s like that. Okay, don’t throw shoes at me - there are exceptions, of course.
But... everything has a price, and the question is, are you willing to pay it?
Heck, even Einstein could have an unexpected bout of diarrhea.
Self-flagellation is pointless. It certainly won’t improve efficiency.
Efficiency is a measure of execution.
An entrepreneur is not so much about execution as about:
- Creativity
- Vision
- Analysis
- Design
- Organization
- Management
- Communication
- Sales
- Processes
- Control, yeah, execution
- Delegation
The larger the team and the more established the company, the less the entrepreneur deals with direct execution. Instead, they roam around kicking slackers and fretting that nothing is done—by others, not by them, ha!
But hey, don't take my words as gospel!
There are always emergencies and new products, projects where you have to get your hands dirty.
But what about the solopreneur?
It’s definitely tough for them, and their efficiency is crucial primarily to themselves.
For solopreneurs and micro-businesses, like crafts or even art, the issue isn’t efficiency or other KPIs.
It’s more about philosophical questions:
- What matters
- Passion, calling
- Life attitude
- Balance and quality of life
- Goals and aspirations
What's the efficiency of an artist who can nurture a painting idea for months (sometimes years!), suffer, burst with emotions, try different things… and then paint a masterpiece in a day?
If someone consciously chooses solopreneurship or a micro-business—believe me, efficiency (as a measure of success) is at the very bottom of their priorities.
Even if they don’t admit it and loudly suffer. Almost like me.
Understanding comes with experience.
Until you've been in various roles, you can’t appreciate the differences or where you see yourself.
The funniest part? Over time, your attitude can change. It all depends on life experiences, surroundings, values.
Anyway, it’s complicated. We’ll talk about this another time.
But thanks to digital tech—AI, automation, solopreneurs no longer need to create huge corporations to realize their ideas.
Someone will say—but these are backed by corporations, big businesses; without their products, this wouldn’t be possible.
Well, okay. Kids—let’s all say—Thank you!
What did you expect?
After all, no one complains that the Sun wasn’t created by you personally or somehow differently.
You either bask in its rays and accept the nuances… or move to the North Pole with the bears, ha!
So now, being an entrepreneur really becomes a matter of personal choice.
And that's wonderful!
So, should we ignore efficiency, productivity?
Short answer - Yes!
Long answer - don't aim to be efficient or productive.
And don’t measure yourself and your results by these criteria.
Ready to grind 20 hours a day?
Risk all your savings?
Forget about family, if you have one, friends? (By the way, that’s why it’s worth hustling hard when you’re young. Not much wisdom often, but plenty of energy)
But no—want to work four hours a day, somewhere on a beach, in the mountains, in a penthouse?… doesn't matter!
Like on YouTube and other social media, showing how super-efficient they are…
How much effort, time, energy, unsuccessful attempts, various options were tried, and how many costly, painful, embarrassing mistakes were made?
Were they efficient THEN?
When you achieve important successes, results, you rarely tell anyone how dumb and inefficient you were.
BUT! Time and effort that may seem wasted is actually your foundation, your base.
That’s how the world works—nothing is ever wasted. And it depends only on the person, what they decide to do with it next.
So, we’re back to the start— these sufferings are pointless.
Accept that we’re all lazy, crafty bums. Me, you, and them too.
Just stop obsessing.
Have a goal? Go for it. Do it. Daily and consistently.
Missed a day? Okay. Breathe out and start again.
By the way!
This is one of the perks of being an entrepreneur.
Employees' efficiency is measured regularly! Think about that.
If you want to know more about other mess-ups and lessons on my entrepreneurial journey — subscribe to Eugene’s Stories.
See you next week!
- Eugene
And one more thing.
Every founder has their own way of getting through hard days.
Her journal reminds me (and maybe you) that it’s okay to struggle — and still move forward.
- Eugene
Join the “most offbeat” Businessletter on entrepreneurship.
Hi, I’m Eugene.
Over the past 20+ years, I’ve grown an international agency from one-person freelance to a multimillion-dollar business. I’ve led teams, scaled systems, burned out, rebuilt, and learned (the hard way) what it really takes to run a business that doesn’t consume your life.
I help them make sense of complexity, design simple systems, and create the kind of business they actually want to run.
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