Build a profitable business- the baby steps part 40

 

The Horatio Alger myth. Empirical research suggests that the so called Horatio Alger myth does indeed has a solid statistical foundation. So exactly what is the Horatio Alger myth? In short, if an individual experiences childhood poverty or a disrupted family life, he or she has a much higher likelyhood of succeeding as an entrepreneur. This is because the hardships of their early lives instilled in them a strong desire and motivation for personal achievement and success later in life. Horatio Alger is an american writer who based his success on a simple yet very effective formula. The lead character was youn boys born into poverty and hardship. By hard work, persistance, willpower and fire in their bellies they ultimately took charge of their lives and became a success. It is the classical tale of rages to riches. In a way, the american author captured the american dream and the american way.

The Horatio Alger myth is based on three fundamental assumptions. 1. Each individual is based on his/her own skills, traits and merits. 2. Each individual has a an equal and fair opportunity to compete.

 

Effectiveness. There´s more to the concept of using your time wisely than just time management. Most people are already planning their work. Or at least they think they are. We have our work planned down to the minute each day. And we ask quite a bit of ourselves each day. Yet we find ouselves doing a lot more than we demand from ourselves. That has to do with effectiveness. Not only is your productivity dependant on how much time you allot to your work, it´s even more important that you are highly effective once you start doing that work. We like to split the day up into 30-minute units. We know what we are supposed to do each unit of time. If we are unable to get the work done in the allotted time we take that work with us into the next time unit. As you can imagine, if something goes wrong you end up with a mountain of work. But that´s ok. The other rule we apply makes up for it. We have a time budget. You see, if we get something done in less time than allotted we get to put that extra time in a “time bank”. We can withdraw the extra time when we find ourselves stuck or we simply just don´t feel like working. We all have ups and downs in our work. There are times when everything is going along smoothly. Some days you can get a weeks work done in just 2 or 3 crazy days, days where you are so effective that you feel almost possessed. Other days may be just the opposite. Lots of interruptions, small unimportant things that take a big chunk out of your day, things that are not working, or people who are not on time. The list could go on, but you get the point.

Now it´s important to use your effective days to beef up your “time bank” so you have something saved up for a rainy day. But it´s also important that you demand enough of yourself so that you are unable to stack up the “time bank” with surplus time too easily. There are time where we do 1 weeks work in 2-3 days, but those are very rare and highly unusal occassions. On most weeks we just barely balance our “time budget”. And that´s the way it should be. It simply means we are working near the top of our game.

 

5-mins kamprad

morning

evening

no calls, mail, meeting 1 before and after

 

Staying in shape and working out is even more important if you are still young. Research shows that the effects of working out while you are still in your teens will stay with you for as long as 40 (!) years. Those are just to good of numbers to overlook.