What, by removing it, would make achieving your goal easier, faster, and lighter?
We often add and add and add stuff to reach our goals.
Yet, the best way to get from where you’re at to where you want to go is often to remove.
Release the parking brake.
Discovering a Principle
In 2012, at 25, I wanted to jump higher. I thought it would be cool to throw down a dunk (even though I didn’t play basketball).
I bought gadgets and vertical jump programs. Fueled with Jack3D pre-workout (now banned by the FDA), I did hundreds of jumps on boxes, off boxes, and at the rim.
Then, my knees swelled up the size of softballs.
Enter, chronic knee pain.
I tried every injection, rehab, and device (over 30 modalities in total). Tens of thousands of dollars in treatments. Most did nothing.
What has worked better than almost all of those other, more expensive, more time-consuming treatments?
Removing starchy foods (bread, rice, potatoes, and corn).
I could throw all the money in the world at the problem, and it would matter less than removing a single factor.
To Improve, Remove
Miguel operates a successful e-commerce business that primarily sells on Amazon. When I first met him, he also had a side project consuming much of his time: a software business.
He’d just spent $25,000 on a one-year accelerator program to try to build his software company.
My advice: kill it and focus on the e-commerce brand.
One wasn’t inherently better than the other. The e-commerce brand was his main, highly promising, easy-to-grow business, while the software business was a distraction.
His e-commerce brand grew by $1,000,000 over the next 12 months.
Growing a business can feel heavy. You add channels, products, people, obligations, time commitments. You try to move faster, but the weight is too much. You power through, often aided by caffeine and other stimulants.
Removing is a relief. You feel lighter. You move faster. Your energy improves. You get better results.
Here are three things to subtract to scale faster.
1. Remove Projects
What’s your primary business, your main driver of income and wealth?
Remove all else.
Cut the side projects. Now.
A friend of mine shut down a $500,000-per-year e-commerce brand to focus on his core business, which he later sold for almost $200 million.
Burn the boats.
2. Remove Products and Promotions
Which products drive 80% of your sales and profits? Which marketing channels, traffic sources, and campaigns?
Cut the others—so you can double down on what matters.
What’s taking up too much of your time, effort, and energy with little hope of return?
Remove it.
Today.
3. Remove People
Early in scaling Lifeboost, we hired a driven, ambitious high-level employee to help grow the company. But something didn’t sit right with me—too much self-focus. Too much worrying about claiming credit for what he did.
I told Charles, “Get rid of this guy immediately.”
We did.
Zero regrets.
I’d seen this before. Letting the wrong kind of person linger in the company for too long.
It only gets more painful the longer you put off what you know you must do. The wrong person’s tentacles become too entwined in your company.
Get rid of him.
You serve no one by delaying the inevitable.
(This applies to agencies as well.)
The Mistake
A great mistake in business is cutting the flowers and watering the weeds. (Or, throwing good money after bad.) I know I’ve been guilty of it.
A portion of your business generates most of the revenue and profits. Don’t take money from what matters and burn it on what doesn’t.
Remove projects.
Remove products & promotions.
Remove people.
What can you remove today to move forward faster, more easily, and with less effort?
On your side,
Matt Clark