Achieve much more with the same effort
Leverage
To lift a heavy object, you have a choice: use leverage or not.
You can try to lift the object directly – risking injury – or you can use a lever, such as a jack or a long plank of wood, to transfer some of the weight, and then lift the object that way.
Which approach is wiser? Will you succeed without using leverage? Maybe. But you can lift so much more with leverage, and do it so much more easily!
So what does this have to do with your life and career? The answer is “plenty.”
By applying the concept of leverage to business and career success, you can, with a little thought, accomplish very much more than you can without it.
Without leverage, you may work very hard, but your rewards are limited by the hours you put in. With leverage, you can break this connection and, in time, achieve very much more.
– Quote from a great article by Mindtools
Time Leverage
Using the leverage of time is the most fundamental strategy for success.
There are only so many hours in a day that you can work.
If you use your own time, you can only achieve so much.
If you leverage other people’s time, you can increase productivity to an extraordinary extent!
The traditional approach to time leverage
Traditionally, entrepreneurs have been excited by the idea of leveraging their time.
Typically their approach has been:
- Come up with a great idea and prove it works (using sweat equity)
- Leverage it by employing others
- In other words, build an “organisation” or company
As companies grow they typically fall victim to
- The 80/20 rule (20% of the people gain 80% of the results – the 80% do enough to keep their jobs)
- Inflexibility – they find it difficult to adapt to rapidly changing conditions
The traditional approach to time leverage is
- Risky (typically requiring a significant investment of capital)
- Slow (often taking many years)
- Cumbersome (at best)
Build an exponentially growing network of high calibre trusted relationships
It’s not what you know – it’s who you know
Think of it this way
- Building your network is no longer an optional extra
- You really do need to (consistently) build your network for mere survival – jobs and business development depend on it – and will more so as the pace of change accelerates
- Building your network is like building any company
- You are building a team of people
- But without the risk (you are not paying employees)
- And you can build a team of 20%ers – in other words, you choose who you want on your team – what could you then achieve?
- You are building a team of people
If you need to build your network anyway, how else could you leverage your network building process?
- In the process of building your network, you will discover many great ideas
- The creators of these ideas often lack the connections to make them work
- But you probably will have the right trusted connections when you are engaged in building an exponentially growing network
- What leveragble , scaleable, minimal risk commercial opportunities would then be available to you?
- Put yourself in the shoes of the creator of a great idea – what do they typically lack?
- What if you can provide exactly what they want?
- Could you form a partnership with them – your part of the deal being to provide the connections (traditionally known as “business development” or marketing)?
The post-COVID environment provides the opportunity to see things differently!