04:31
Faizan
What I Learned about Business from My Fitness Coach
Starting a company is terrifying. The idea of willfully leaving a well-paying job to pursue a venture where there is no guarantee of an income and absolutely zero infrastructure is borderline panic-inducing. The idea of getting fat, old, and dying of a heart attack prematurely because I sit behind a desk trying to run a start-up is also terrifying. I needed to get in shape. Enter my close friend and trainer - we'll call him Craig. Because his name is Craig. Craig reminded me on day one that if my heart attack fears had any effect on my training, it would be an adverse one. That's when I realized that this process of getting fit and not succumbing to artery blockage would closely mirror the perseverance required to stand up and run a successful company.
Excuses are weakness thinly veiled as problems you don't really have.
There is a significant difference between identifying roadblocks between you and your goal, and finding reasons not to succeed. The former is a necessary step in developing a plan, and the latter is a clear indicator that your decision-making process need to be reevaluated. When Craig and I first spoke about a 6-day-a-week training routine that would go on for months, my immediate response was to go through the mental checklist of all of the things I needed to accomplish every day. The conclusion I inevitably came to was that my work schedule was going to prevent me from committing to such a rigorous training plan. I expected sympathy here. Or at the very least empathy. Everyone knew how much I worked, including Craig. No sympathy. Or empathy. I had gone to Craig for help, and I needed to decide if I wanted the help or not. If I wanted to succeed, I had to commit and find (or make) a way for the program to work. This is the plan I came up with:
1) Keep everyone informed. Before I work out, my entire team knows my schedule and that I will be generally unavailable for an hour or so. I can still be reached, but it had better be an emergency. Like someone bleeding to death in the office, or a deal burning down in my absence. Otherwise it can wait an hour. Working with my team to identify what constitutes an emergency has led to higher productivity, more independent thinking, and more freedom for me.
2) Set a deadline as opposed to a schedule. My unpredictable schedule and workload make it impossible for me to plan a workout hours in advance. I can't plan to be walking out of the office to go for a run or spend an hour in the gym at 2 pm. Why? Because something comes up at 1:45 pm and dashes my hopes for an on-time exit.
The key is not to let these interru
Starting a company is terrifying. The idea of willfully leaving a well-paying job to pursue a venture where there is no guarantee of an income and absolutely zero infrastructure is borderline panic-inducing. The idea of getting fat, old, and dying of a heart attack prematurely because I sit behind a desk trying to run a start-up is also terrifying. I needed to get in shape. Enter my close friend and trainer - we'll call him Craig. Because his name is Craig. Craig reminded me on day one that if my heart attack fears had any effect on my training, it would be an adverse one. That's when I realized that this process of getting fit and not succumbing to artery blockage would closely mirror the perseverance required to stand up and run a successful company.
Excuses are weakness thinly veiled as problems you don't really have.
There is a significant difference between identifying roadblocks between you and your goal, and finding reasons not to succeed. The former is a necessary step in developing a plan, and the latter is a clear indicator that your decision-making process need to be reevaluated. When Craig and I first spoke about a 6-day-a-week training routine that would go on for months, my immediate response was to go through the mental checklist of all of the things I needed to accomplish every day. The conclusion I inevitably came to was that my work schedule was going to prevent me from committing to such a rigorous training plan. I expected sympathy here. Or at the very least empathy. Everyone knew how much I worked, including Craig. No sympathy. Or empathy. I had gone to Craig for help, and I needed to decide if I wanted the help or not. If I wanted to succeed, I had to commit and find (or make) a way for the program to work. This is the plan I came up with:
1) Keep everyone informed. Before I work out, my entire team knows my schedule and that I will be generally unavailable for an hour or so. I can still be reached, but it had better be an emergency. Like someone bleeding to death in the office, or a deal burning down in my absence. Otherwise it can wait an hour. Working with my team to identify what constitutes an emergency has led to higher productivity, more independent thinking, and more freedom for me.
2) Set a deadline as opposed to a schedule. My unpredictable schedule and workload make it impossible for me to plan a workout hours in advance. I can't plan to be walking out of the office to go for a run or spend an hour in the gym at 2 pm. Why? Because something comes up at 1:45 pm and dashes my hopes for an on-time exit.
The key is not to let these interru
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