Peer in episode #60 of the De Gebakken Peren Podcast.
No Money to Delegate, No Time to Make Money
It’s hard to break out of this bind. You’re too busy!
You don’t have the budget to delegate your work, and thus you don’t have the time to create the budget to delegate.
The two main reasons you got into this are:
1. You’ve sold something for less than it costs you to make.
If you don’t have the budget to pay someone else to produce the product/do the service, you’re selling at a loss.
You might not see this loss in your cash flows because you’re not paying yourself for that work.
But that means you’re pretending your time doesn’t cost that money (very common).
Your time isn’t free; it’s actually the most expensive.
Why? Because you’re the only one who can get you out of the bind.
Secondly, even if it feels okay now, doing too much work for too little pay can’t go on forever. Burning out is very expensive.
Solutions?
Extra funding or subsidies. But those are often temporary.
Increasing the price and/or increasing the value you deliver in ways that don’t cost you more.
Monetize the value you create for other stakeholders besides your direct customers.
2. You’ve resisted delegating for too long.
Either because you overestimate how magical your sauce is.
“Nobody can edit like me.”
Possibly. But if your viewers don’t come for your unique editing style but because of the information, a dedicated editor is probably faster or better than you.
Or, you think the task is beneath someone to ask of them.
But you’d be surprised how different our preferences are in what work we enjoy.
Give someone the right conditions or stability, and “even” administrative work can be fun for some people.
📧 → Let me know if these reasons resonate or if there’s perhaps something else going on for you.
📧 → I sense a longer post coming up to combine these snippets on delegating I’ve written over the last few weeks. Let me know if you’re interested!
Making an Honest Attempt Is Also an Example
Your actions speak louder than words.
Just as parents can talk a big game about what behavior they expect from their kids, kids do as they see.
So too, do your employees base their beliefs on what you value or expect from them on your actions, not your words.
“You don’t have to work as hard as me.” “I really want you to take care of yourself.”
These words will fall on deaf ears when your actions contradict your words.
Your employees will feel the incongruity and will not truly believe that when push comes to shove, you will value their healthier relationship to work.
However, an honest and explicit attempt to work to change it is also an example.
“Right now, I’m not setting the right example, and this is what I propose we do to change that, for the betterment of all of us.”
Premeditatio Malorum
Another lesson that could be a book: your relationship to money and risk.
Having to answer the door for debt collectors when you’re a kid can leave an indelible imprint on you. And it will influence your later relationship to money and taking risks.
The Stoics had a practice called Premeditatio Malorum. To actively engage in negative visualization to contemplate the bad things that could happen to us.
Sounds pretty bleak. But this way, you can plan to do something about it.
If your relationship with money is stressful, you will have these negative thoughts anyway.
Just like in regular conversation, when someone doesn’t feel heard, these thoughts will keep repeating. And louder.
A first step to have a quieter mind is to give space to let these thoughts finish.
An exercise to work with the fears that come up when contemplating a decision is **Fear Setting**, popularized by Tim Ferriss.
For a decision, list in three columns: 1) what you are afraid of can happen, 2) what you can do to prevent that from happening, 3) what you will do when it has happened.
