Maximize the Outcome

In my last blog, you read about my husband’s first venture as an entrepreneur in 1973, when a successful ad launched his college-funding venture. From the beginning, he had several objectives for his lawn-cutting business:

1. Make money during his break from classes to minimize the need for school loans.

2. Live at home, where he did not have to pay living expenses.

3. Work during the day so he could socialize at night.

Then, a critical choice made a difference back then – and continues to do so today. Jim decided to look at lawn cutting as a workout – and embraced exercise as a good thing.

He could have seen it as hot, sweaty drudgery. Instead, he ran through most of the lawns with his little non-self-propelled rotary gas mower. He got a kick out of the fact that he could cut a lawn in 45 minutes or an hour, when it would have taken the home-owner four hours. So, his new personal objectives were:

4. Get a workout.

5. Finish work as early as possible so he could start socializing.

Even now, in his late 50s, Jim looks at lawn-cutting as cross-training. He puts on his soccer shoes, cranks up his non-self-propelled rotary gas mower, and runs through our lawn, and then his parents’ lawn next door.

What can you do to maximize the outcome of the task before you?  

• Can you turn it into exercise?  
• Or a mental challenge to win?  
• Complete it with no errors the first time?  
• Finish it before the deadline so you can take some time off?  

In other words: recognize an “opportunity to shine” and make the most of it!

Think about it – and let me know.

Until we meet again,
The Entrepreneur’s Friend