“What gets measured gets improved” Peter Drucker, probably
I don’t have shareholders to impress or office politics to navigate, so I think of success as a measure of peace of mind that I can build. A year of 20% growth with peace of mind sounds better than a year of 60% growth fueled by stress and poor-fit clients.
In that sense, I feel the amount of bad-fitting work avoided is a better indicator of success than the amount of revenue growth you managed to hang on to.
Here’s my logic:
– The experience of having no work makes saying “no” to even bad-fitting potential work feel like a failure, but that’s the fear talking.
– Usually, it’s doing the hard things that make someone successful and there’s nothing easier than saying “yes” to every wallet that comes along.
– Of course, there’s no shame in saying “yes” to any work at all when we need a lifeline to pay the bills. And maybe hanging on to that lifeline is what got you where you are today. But on the path toward a future with more peace of mind than you currently have, that same lifeline turns into an anchor that’s holding you back.
What got you here won’t get you there.
This is why I say measuring the amount of work you could have taken on, but didn’t is the best measure of success. If you measure and improve your ability to say “no,” you will build a future in which you can look forward to working better instead of more.