I've stolen most of what I know.
Many years of walking into other people's businesses, and the best operators I've come across all had something going on that I couldn't explain at first. They were calm in a way that seemed unreasonable given what they were managing. And it was never because they were working harder than the panicked ones. Frankly, they were usually working less.
So, I started writing down what they were doing differently. None of it is the standard COO advice about systems and dashboards and process documentation. These are just small habits that mostly don't sound impressive… until you start doing them.
1. They act like a shareholder, not an employee
They stop asking what needs doing today and instead ask what would make this company worth more in three years. It's a perspective shift, and what it does is pull their attention onto the handful of activities that actually move the numbers... revenue, cost of goods, operating costs. Often what sits on an owner's to-do list doesn't touch any of them.
2. They keep asking what the work is actually for, and they kill the busy work
They're not asking to be a pain. It's that a surprising amount of what a business does every week is out of habit. Maybe it's a report nobody reads, a meeting that's held because that's how it was always done, or a process built for a problem that no longer exists. The owners who are winning kill the busy work faster, because they're asking what outcome the work is attached to, rather than just asking whether it's getting done.
3. They surround themselves with a peer group or a mentor who's already done it
Every owner I know who is further along has someone in their corner who has done this before. A peer, a mentor, a coach, someone who's experienced the intense ups and downs of running a business and can tell them, in about five minutes, whether what's happening is a crisis or just another Monday.
4. They make quick decisions with imperfect information, using one-way and two-way doors
Because speed and experimentation wins, especially if a decision can be walked back. It's similar to Jeff Bezos' idea that there are two kinds of doors. A one-way door locks behind you once you walk through it, so those are worth slowing down for. Most decisions are two-way doors, where you walk through, and if it's wrong you walk back out and all you've lost is a bit of time and maybe some pride.
5. They separate the decision from the outcome
Poker players call this resulting. The decision is what you chose based on what you knew at the time. The outcome is what happened next, and a good chunk of that is luck. So, a smart decision can still lose, and a bad one can still get lucky. The best operators ask whether they made the right decision given the information they had, so they don't simply repeat the same play just because it worked once.
6. They say no to the wrong clients, and they can tell you what wrong means
Scarcity says take every client because money is money. What that misses is the cost. The wrong client eats your time, wears down your team, and the good client ends up getting your B effort. Abundance knows the right ones are still coming. And the best operators have clear values that tell them which is which.
7. They're comfortable being disliked for a decision
You can't run a business and keep everyone happy. Some of the decisions you have to make won't be liked by the people who work for you. We've all been here. But the operators who win have accepted that being liked and being right aren't always the same thing.
8. They take a real holiday, then audit what broke while they were gone
Whatever problems came up while they were gone tell them where the business is thin. So, they come back and fix it properly so it doesn't happen again. Usually that's a hire, or a decision no one was allowed to make on their own.
9. They keep the work that gives them energy, and delegate the work that drains it
They know which parts of the job they hate, even if they're great at them, and they purposefully hand those off. What's left is the work that gives them energy, which is how they keep the pace up over the long term.
10. They still talk to their own clients
Once there's a bit of structure in the business, everything an owner hears about a client has been filtered through someone who'd rather it sounded fine. The good operators know this, so they keep a couple of direct client relationships. They don't necessarily run the account, they just make sure they have an unfiltered view on how things are going.
Here's what's key about this list… not one of them requires more hours, more money, or a better version of you. They're mostly just small decisions about where your attention goes.
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