If you’re too busy to fix it — that is the problem
Or minute of friction, disguised as progress
Not everything in your business is broken.
But something is.
The hardest part, you often don’t notice until it’s already cost you:
- Time
- Money
- Your team’s energy
- Your own mental bandwidth
I learned this the hard way.
We were growing, I was expanding the sales team, hired more lead gen reps.
Spent weeks on onboarding and expected results to follow.
Instead all I saw was a flatline.
No increase in leads. No consistent flow.
Just more effort for same outcome.
Because there was no system.
Everyone worked off their own instincts.
No shared criteria.
No alignment on ICP.
No standard messaging.
Each new rep reinvented the wheel, then blamed the road.
And I was too busy fighting other fires to notice.
It wasn’t until the financial pain hit, the kind that leaves you staring at payroll and wondering, “How the hell did we get here?”
That I finally zoomed out and I saw the real issue:
We weren’t underperforming.
We were unsystematic.
Effort ≠ Progress.
Without structure, even smart people waste energy.
That was just one team. I’ve seen the same pattern in marketing, delivery, ops.
And it always starts the same way:
The founder is too deep in the weeds to see where things are breaking.
A business isn’t made of tasks.
It’s made of systems.
If you’re always too busy to fix what’s broken, that is your bottleneck.
Disclaimer.
Every business has its nuances, and every founder has their unique context and resources. Whether or not my advice applies depends on your situation, experience, and needs. But one thing is universal—use your brain.
Think about how to apply the advice in your context before acting.
Your way.
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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If you’re too busy to fix it — that is the problem
Or minute of friction, disguised as progress
Always on just means always at risk
Or minute of drowning while holding the wheel
