The Art of Doing Too Many Things

I had a nyc weekend again.. Sna laging na lng ganun (so much for my new year's resolution and change of heart entry haha! well...) Seriously, I was working last weekend but I was having fun too. I'm super stoked and so is everyone else. I got burned and toasted in the sun but hey! it's all good.... There were bumps and issues yet we did good. Kudos to Team Travel Factor! We really never realized how fast we were growing and we need to keep up with that. One weekend that we were away and people thought were gone. Now, we know what its like... Anyway, i got this to for our team... tough week and more to go.... Travel Factor. Travel More!

The Art of Doing Too Many Things
http://www.re3elstance.com/2008/01/16/the-art-of-doing-too-many-things/

Alright, so I’m not an Oprah fan. It’s not that I have anything against her I just can’t say that I’ve ever watched her show, read her magazine, watched her television network or read books off her list. What I can say though is that she is an entrepreneur and is proving that you can do a lot of things at once as an entrepreneur. For that, I have to respect and admire her.

The latest news is all about her launching a TV network with the Discovery Channel. But, this news has come with a lot of criticism that she is doing too many things. Well, maybe she is. Or, maybe she isn’t. But, as an entrepreneur, my guess is that you want to do “too many things” yourself. So, within that vein here are a few things you can do to help you “pull off too many things”:

1. Understand that your fate as an entrepreneur is to do “too many things”. Yep, you’ll start too many businesses and some will fail because of lack of money or lack of time or lack of interest after you jump in.
2. Understand that you will get grief for doing too many things. It is true that focusing on one thing is often the best way to build a business. It is true that focusing on too many things can be the downfall of your business. But, read number one again.
3. Given the above, build partners, partners, partners. Don’t try to do the “too many things” on your own. Be sure you have partners that can run with some of the ideas more than you can and that you can run with some of the ideas more than they can.
4. Build a system and do a lot of things but things that have similar patterns or dynamics. Build a platform: get your sales system down; get your marketing system down; get your branding system down; get your operations system down. Once you have that you can run a series of things through it.
5. No matter how good of a system you build you can do a lot of things but you can’t do a lot of way too different things. Don’t try to build a company that manufactures rugs at the same time that you try to build a company that retails hats at the same time that you try to build a childcare company at the same time that you try to build an internet company. You can do all of those things…eventually. But, start with doing a bunch of things within related spaces. In other words, start the internet company that has a retail rugs site a retail hats site and a social network about parenting or childcare. The patterns are the same. You’ll be able to do a lot of things. You’ll win. Then, you can sell them and move onto doing a bunch of other things.
6. Keep balance. No matter how many things you do and no matter how much you are tempted to bypass sleep and exercise and hobbies to do them, find time to walk away from it all. Spend time with your family. Spend time on your hobbies. Go traveling. Keep fit. When you are balanced you can do more in 2 hours than you can do in 10 hours if you are unbalanced
7. There is such a thing as doing too many “too many things”. Yes, at some point you can’t do it all. You’ll know when you reach that point when you can’t fulfill on number six above.
8. Offer similar value to the market with each of your “too many things”. It’s probably the business school guy in me, but you need to know what value you add and stick to that value. You can’t be the low cost leader on one business and the boutique and exclusive quality leader on your other business. Choose your value. Choose your philosophy. Choose what you do well. Let those drive your “too many things”.
9. Take the time to brand yourself as an entrepreneur. Everybody knows a Richard Branson company when you see one. Everybody knows an Oprah company when you see one. Read number 8 above again and then take the time to brand yourself.
10. Pour your heart into your too many things. At the point that you can’t keep balance cut back on your “too many things”…immediately. But don’t cut back too much - walk right on that line. Equally important: the minute you can’t pour your heart into too many things cut back…immediately. But, again, don’t cut back too much…live right there on the edge.

And, the final piece is to live in the moment. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish if you live in the moment. When you are working on one business work on that one business. Don’t check email. Don’t think about the other business. Don’t think about your grocery list. When you spend time with your kids don’t think about your businesses. Don’t think about your stresses. Don’t think about what you “could be doing”. Instead, embrace what you are doing as exactly what you “should be doing”.

As an entrepreneur, you will always want to do too many things whether in business or in life in general. Don’t fight that urge too much but do find the art of “doing those too many things” well.

Personally, i need to really learn to live in the moment. I'm a worrier and I'm a person who thinks a lot sometimes when it comes to topics like these. You know, responsibilities. They just get to me really bad specially when they are too many. I get so messed up and paranoid and tense and getting a hold of myself is difficult. Well anyway, I'll learn it.