October 4Excessive Business
It is very sad for a person to make themselves servant to a single thing; their life all taken out of them by the hydraulic pressure of excessive business.—I should not like to be merely a great doctor, a great lawyer, a great minister, a great politician.—I should like to be, also, something of a person.
Theodore Parker—as quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908)
Wow. Hydraulic pressure of excessive business. Now that's an evocative way to describe entrepreneurship.
Truth is, in business, we're rarely as busy as we think we are; we're as busy as we tell ourselves we are.
And that leads to time-wasting tasks, blaming others for our failings, and performing at a level beneath our best work. Then, ultimately the “hydraulic pressure” overcomes us and deteriorates our ability to be something of a person.
When you're truly connected to the greater reward of your work, you'll find it easier to ignore the immediate reward of distraction.
Challenge Question
- What's the first, most important task you're going to knock out today before you do anything else? Why is it important?
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