independent advisors to business people with high expectations

When you ask people how they are, how many times do they answer  …. “really busy!”, “run off my feet” or some similar version?

If instead, they answered “not much happening - how about we skip out for the afternoon and play a game of tennis” - would you think their business was in serious trouble?  Probably.

As a business owner, is being “really busy” a sign of success? What is this pre-occupation we have with being busy.  And what is being busy? 

It seems extreme “busyness” is held as a good thing - although we mostly complain about it.  It almost appears as some kind of virtue. 

How come running around like a “blue-ass fly” (one of Dave’s favourite sayings) is a sign of success?  I would have thought it was more a symptom of poor planning, bad time management or inefficiency.  If we’re flat out doing stuff we love doing, then that’s okay.  It’s when we’re flat out doing stuff we don’t want to do, at the mercy of other people’s priorities, that it becomes a problem.

Now I’m as bad as the next person when it comes to getting sucked down the black hole of busyness.  But I’m not really interested in living my life that way.  I don’t want to be so busy that I can never check my to-do list and say - “I’m not ticking those off today, I’ve had enough, I’m off to the beach.”   Now if you can do that, and still have a great business, surely that smacks more of success than being too busy to leave the office before dark!

The question is - is “busyness” a sign of success?

Do you have any questions?  Please don’t hesitate to contact us.  We’d be happy to discuss them with you.

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