Chris Cooper's Blog, page 148

Case Study: The Abdicator

“I’m ready to work on the next project, so I took a business partner to keep my business running. But he’s dropping the ball, and I’m constantly being called in to fight fires!”

 

Suzanne owns a daycare. It’s a great little spot: she has private rooms, a bit of green grass outside, and a waiting list for enrollment. Or, at least, she did.

 

Last year, Suzanne had a great idea: to open a kids’ used clothing store. As a parent, she knew how quickly kids outgrew expensive sweaters and jeans. And as a daycare owner, she already had a huge mailing list for potential clients. Everything about the idea was solid, so she leased a storefront downtown and opened up.

 

Knowing that her daycare business was really the “golden goose”, Suzanne was worried that it would falter without her constant presence. Her idea was to give the daycare manager, Shawn, a share of the business: Shawn would have some “skin in the game”, some upside to growth, and an incentive to work hard. After all, no one works harder than an owner. Or so Suzanne thought.

 

The first week, Shawn wanted to repaint one of the kids’ rooms. Suzanne had chosen blue for a reason–it’s calming for little kids–but she wanted Shawn to feel like a real owner, so she let him make his first decision. After all, it would defeat the purpose to micromanage him. Right?

 

Over the next few months, a few little hiccups happened. But Shawn’s attitude toward the daycare began to cool: he started wearing jeans and a t-shirt to work; started showing up late; and began yelling at staff. He adopted the privileges of ownership but seemed to avoid the mantle of responsibility.

 

More and more frequently, Suzanne gets texts from other staff, calls from parents, and emails from creditors. Last week, she had to rush to the daycare to open the door for the staff because Shawn was late without warning. She feels herself getting sucked back in. Worst of all, enrollment is declining, and Suzanne is afraid she’ll have to chip in some money to cover payroll. She called me because she was dreading the conversation with Shawn: as a shareholder, he’ll have to put some money into the business, and Suzanne doesn’t think he can afford to.

 

Here are Suzanne’s real problems:

She didn’t clearly lay out the potential downside to Shawn; she simply handed him a winning lottery ticket
She didn’t consider other options instead of giving up shares (revenue splits, bonuses, salaries)
She didn’t test her processes to see if her daycare really COULD run without her
She didn’t test Shawn’s leadership skills
She’s trying to abdicate instead of delegate.
She didn’t ask Shawn if he WANTED to be an entrepreneur.

 

In the words of Jay Williams, a senior TwoBrain mentor: “Everyone thinks they want our job. But nobody REALLY wants our job.” The lure of entrepreneurship is sexy, and staff often only see the upside: freedom of time, and extra money. But no one hears about failing businesses, because the entrepreneurs don’t talk about them.

 

Suzanne’s first step should be to ask the question she SHOULD have asked first:

 

“Shawn, do you want to want to own part of this business?”

 

Is it too late to ask? Maybe, but Suzanne can give Shawn an opportunity to bow out gracefully, save herself a very hard conversation and allow Shawn to escape the upcoming cash call. Even if there’s a 10% chance Shawn says “Yes, I want to go back to being an employee!” it’s worth asking the question first.

 

Next, Suzanne must lay out the crisis without pointing fingers or laying blame. She must advise Shawn of the upcoming cash call and ask him if he can make his contribution. From there, the conversation can take one of three paths:

 

Shawn can say “Yes, I’ll pay” and they can begin dissecting the problem.
Shawn can say “I don’t have the money!” and Suzanne can offer to cover the cash crisis in return for his shares.
Shawn can say “What the hell happened? This can’t be true!” and try to derail the conversation.

 

Of all the options, #2 is the most likely. Shawn is unlikely to doubt Suzanne’s motives, and the bank balance supports her case. The crisis is actually a huge opportunity for Suzanne to get her company back…and for Shawn to get what HE wants, which is really a secure job.

 

Outcome:

Though Shawn loved to say “I’m an owner”, he didn’t really want the responsibilities of ownership. He felt as if Suzanne had “abandoned” him to the business, and was unreachable. Suzanne admits that she had been focusing all of her attention on the clothing store, believing the daycare was in good hands. If not for the cash crisis, Shawn and Suzanne might have been able to work through their problems as partners. But ultimately, Shawn didn’t have the money to cover his share of the costs, and had to sell his share of the company back to Suzanne. It was a costly lesson for her. First, the business should never have reached the cash crisis point. And second, though Shawn sold his shares and is back to employee status, he’s suspicious of Suzanne, and probably looking for a job elsewhere.

Suzanne said: “I wish I’d just paid him to be a manager, or at least tried to explain the downside of ownership before I gave him a share of my baby.”

******

I don’t often hear “My business is a cash machine”, but when I do, I love it! I get excited for the entrepreneur, because I know they ALWAYS have another big idea in mind. This is the entry point of the Tinker Phase, and it’s incredibly exciting. The next trick is to keep the first business thriving while the entrepreneur shifts his focus to new opportunities. That means leaving a Farmer behind, and, sometimes, taking a partner. But before you take a partner, make sure they REALLY want to be an entrepreneur!

 

 

 

The Currency of Thieves

How do you pay a man who has everything?

 

I’m training for a 100km bike race. It’s my first, and it won’t be much of a race: my goal is to raise money for a local hospice, and finish a 100km ride for the first time.

 

The ride will take place on beautiful St. Joseph Island, a cyclist’s paradise. One lap of the Island is 70km, and the race course will be one lap, and then a bisecting straight shot over the “mountain” in the middle. It’s exciting, and I’m not ready for it yet.

 

To train for the race, I enlisted the help of my friend Ray (founder of UpCoach.org). He, in turn, called another friend, a retired local doctor. This guy is a REAL athlete: he’s been ranked among the top in the world for rowing, and he regularly travels to France to ride sections of the Tour de France on his bike. He once rowed across the Atlantic with half a dozen other guys. Yeah: Dr. Steve is a REAL athlete.

 

I met Ray and Dr. Steve a kilometer from my house. They had to bike 10k just to reach me, and pulled up two minutes after our meeting time. Ray was already panting when they arrived. “I can’t keep that up for 3 hours!” he laughed at Dr. Steve, who shrugged and said, “I hate to be late.” Then we clicked into our pedals and set off.

 

If you’re not a cyclist, you might wonder why people on bikes ride so closely together. A group of riders (a “peloton”) will pack together so closely their wheels almost touch. This is because the greatest challenge on a bike isn’t a hill, but the wind. Even small breezes require huge increases in work to maintain speed. When you’re traveling over 20km/h to start with, every little knot of breeze makes the work much harder. So cyclists group together behind a lead cyclist to stay out of the wind. The front rider creates a slipstream for the second rider for awhile, and then drops back to let someone else take the lead. At least, that’s what usually happens.

 

Since the rider in front is doing far more work than the second rider, who is doing slightly more work than the third rider, it’s pretty easy to roll along in third position. And that’s what I did, for three straight hours: I let Dr. Steve “pull” us in a loop around the Island. We both left at the same time and ended in the same place, but he did FAR more work than I. To be specific, Dr. Steve put out between 230W and 250W for three hours straight, while I had to put out around 150W to 180W over the same time. It wasn’t easy for me, but it was much easier thanks to his hard work at the front.

 

After 60k, we dropped Ray at home and continued on toward Dr. Steve’s house. He’s now retired, and comfortably doing whatever he wants. He makes maple syrup in the spring, skis cross-country in the winter and rides in the spring and summer. Sometimes he goes to France to ride. He hosts bonfires that sometimes turn into intellectual debates. He reads good books and tells good jokes. He doesn’t need money, and neither do I.

 

The currency of those in the Tinker and Thief phases isn’t money. It’s Help First.

 

Opportunities to help a Tinker or Thief can be hard to find. After all, they don’t need money. But money can’t buy a trip around the Island or three hours of sacrifice at the head of a small peloton. Or it could mean helping their kid (which I plan to do with Dr. Steve, who has a son doing CrossFit far away.) If you want to thank a Tinker, or help a Thief, you have to be on the constant lookout for opportunities. That means actively seeking ways to Help First all the time. It takes practice.

 

Partnership in the Tinker and Thief Phases takes more than looking for a “win-win”. It means looking for just a single “win”–only for the other guy, instead of yourself. Dr. Steve doesn’t know me well. He doesn’t expect for me to return the favor. He had the opportunity to serve, and he took it. That was his payment. That’s the real mark of success.

Don’t Get Too Good At The Wrong Thing

“Nobody frosts the cookies like I do!”

 

It’s the siren song of the self-employed: “I’m the best around.”

 

Most of us opened a business because we WERE the best around. We had some local authority or renown, and wanted to capitalize on our expertise. So we bought ourself a job. We became self-employed.

 

Then we realized that we couldn’t possibly work hard enough or fast enough to pay our bills AND ourselves. So we hired a staff person. And since we’re only good at one thing, we tried to hire a duplicate.

 

Instead of hiring a manager, or a bookkeeper, or a cleaner–all the stuff we’re bad at–we hire someone with the same skillset we have. But, of course, we’re THE BEST, so they can never be as good as us…and now we have to do our own work AND look over their shoulder all the time. We need to hold them to the impossible standard of being our exact duplicate without ever surpassing our expertise. That takes a lot of energy. And it doesn’t grow our business.

 

In the “Harried Hostess” case study, Roberta was really good at all the wrong things. No one could set a table as quickly as she could, so she set all the tables. No one could polish the silverware, or take a reservation, or mix a drink like Roberta, so Roberta did those things while her staff stood around and watched. Roberta was very, very good at all the wrong, wrong things.

 

In the Founder Phase, it’s enough to be the best babysitter in town. But when you open a daycare to earn a better living, you enter the Farmer Phase. Now your job is to be the best entrepreneur in town, and your staff’s job is to be the best babysitters caregivers.

 

If you’re always doing their job better than them, you’ll never do your job well.

 

The best coaches develop athletes who are better than they ever were. The best Farmers build specialists who coach better classes, give better haircuts and file better tax reports. The best Farmers get over their egos, get over the Icon problem, and get over themselves to build the best business for their families. That’s more than a pivot of strategy: it’s a pivot of mindset. And it’s necessary to move from Founder to Farmer.

 

Specialists work for generalists. Be good at everything in your business, but don’t be the best at anything–except being the business owner.

Task-Based or Time-Based?

You do your best work when your back is to the wall.

 

As an entrepreneur, you know you can get more done in 34 minutes–make that 33, and counting–than most people working a 9-to-5 can accomplish all day. “If you want something done, give it to a busy person” is a truism that every entrepreneur nods along with. Entrepreneurs are task-oriented: we work until the work is done, not until the clock chimes 5.

 

That’s not to say that every employee is Homer Simpson or Fred Flintstone, hitting the parking lot while the end-of-shift whistle blows. And I’m not saying anyone is lazy; we’re all taught the same lesson (punch in, make widgets to spec, punch out) from kindergarten through college. But when your groceries are on the line, your focus shifts from time-based to task-based.

 

This isn’t only true of entrepreneurs. Every worker’s goal is to collect their pay and get home.

 

For example, before the postal union in Canada had a mandatory workday, many postal workers would finish their routes by 1:30pm. They’d have to hustle to do it, but several would succeed. Their last stop would be the personal training gym where I worked before checking out at the post office next door. No corners were cut: every person on their route got their mail before 1:30, and the postal worker would simply drop off their bag and enjoy their afternoon. It was a win for everyone.

 

Then the union–one of the most powerful in our union-friendly country–decided that everyone should stay until 3pm, regardless of when the mail was delivered. The result was predictable: the carriers finished right at 3pm, nearly 25% slower than before. There wasn’t more mail (heck, there’s probably less now than ever) but the carriers moved from a task-based job to a time-based job. Everyone got their mail a bit later, and the system slowed in the mud of bureaucracy.

 

Work always expands to fill the time you have available.

 

We all procrastinate. We all try to multi-task, and it kills our productivity. But an entrepreneur has an advantage: the responsibility for finishing a task on time instead of merely filling a workday. Deadlines are positive constraints. And they only exist for task-based work.

 

For example, paying a staff person to call ten clients is more powerful than paying a staff person to call clients between 1pm and 2pm.

 

Paying a virtual assistant a fixed rate to find and book a seminar venue is more powerful than assigning the same task to a salaried staff person. The VA has an incentive to get the job done fast. And the incentive of future work means he’ll also do it well.

 

At TwoBrain, we define roles (the hats worn in your business) and tasks (the checklist for each role) in the Incubator. Then we identify the lowest-value roles (the places where the owner is most easily replaced) and assign them to others. We do this by role and task instead of telling the owner to hire people, pay them a salary, and hope for the best.

 

Paying staff by role instead of a flat salary gives them the incentive to finish the job fast, and–as long as you’re evaluating them–an incentive to do it well, because they want to keep that role.

 

For example, I might pay a staff member $20 for a client goal review, to a limit of ten per week. I might commit to testing the process for three months. I might tell them that as long as we see an ROI of at least 33%, we’ll continue the program after the trial period. The staff member now has the opportunity to earn an extra $200 per week; they’ll set their calendar to meet the client’s preference; and when the ten sessions are done, the staff member can go home. If it fits the clients’ preferences, the staff member could even do all ten sessions in one day, and take other days off to relax. And if they do a great job, the role will continue.

 

The new “gig” economy is an obvious example of the benefit of task-based work. If you drive an Uber, you accept fares until it’s time to go home, right? You don’t sit around and kill the clock, or run errands between rides: you pack them in tightly and sign off as early as possible.

 

BUT WAIT!!!! What about employee loyalty?! What about their need to make a living?!? What about traditionnnnnn?!?

 

Salaries were desirable for our parents’ generation, because they sought stability above all else. THEIR parents were the first generation to see a “middle class”, and probably had to fight to make a living. Our parents were eager to choose predictability over opportunity, and they created a foundation on which we could take a few risks. My parents even told me to go into teaching because I’d “never find a better pension anywhere else.” If my goal was to patiently survive 30 years and then retire to boredom, I’d have taken their advice.

 

But survey data shows most workers no longer place job security above all else. What DO they want? Well, they need to make enough to match the happiness index. But they also want continuing education. And they want the chance to control their own earnings or position. Many might even want to feel entrepreneurial, but without all of those real-world risks. If you do it right, you can make your staff feel fulfilled and–gasp!–happy without a salary.

 

We teach entrepreneurs how to mentor their staff toward their own Perfect Day in the Incubator.

Case Study: The Harried Hostess

“I think I hate people.”

Roberta’s family has been in the restaurant business for three generations.

She was raised in her Nonna’s kitchen. She was serving tables before she started high school, and she’s been greeting guests for over thirty years.

When she called, Roberta told me, “I just don’t understand this younger generation. Nobody wants to work hard! And the minimum wage keeps going up–it’s like these kids want something for nothing.”

I asked her why she felt that way.

“You’ll see,” she said. “Come for lunch.” And she put the phone down in my ear.

I love lunch. So I went.

I’m chronically early for things, so I arrived ten minutes before noon. Roberta was clearly flustered: “Oh, I didn’t expect you yet!” she looked around the room. There were empty tables, but her mind was already juxtaposing the lunch crowd on the filling restaurant. “Um, why don’t we sit on the deck?” she said. We did.

I told her not to rush. She said, “No, no, I should be fine. I have lots of staff working right now.” and rolled her eyes. She hustled back inside to check her staff. I didn’t see her again for fifteen minutes.

When she returned, she noticed that the wait staff hadn’t delivered menus to our table, and that I didn’t have anything to drink. “Are you kidding me?!?” she said, exasperated. And burst back inside the restaurant to berate one of the waitresses. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but I could imagine. The flustered waitress came out right away, practically tripping over herself to take a drink order.

I could see Roberta through the restaurant windows. She took a phone call–probably a reservation request. She frowned as she listened, pursed her mouth into a tight line and shook her head. I read her lips as she said “Nothing” to the caller, and when she caught me watching, she rolled her eyes. Then she held up a finger to show me she’d only be a minute. I signaled that I was fine. I was happy to sit out on the deck and sip lemonade while the boats went by.

Before she could leave the phone, however, Roberta was approached by some new patrons. They asked her for a table. She did the same scan as before, and pointed outside. She looked as if she was daring them to say “We prefer to eat inside”–and when they hesitated, she grabbed menus and simply walked out onto the patio without looking back. The guests looked at each other, shrugged, and followed her. But the empty tables on the patio weren’t yet set for lunch, so she smacked the menus down, apologized to the guests, apologized to me for taking so long, and went back inside to berate another waitress. She looked frazzled. She looked MAD. And it was only twelve o’clock.

When Roberta finally sat down at the table, I had eaten a sandwich and ordered espresso.

“I’m really sorry to keep you waiting–what must you think of me?!” she was really embarrassed. “But you see what I mean?! The place would fall apart if I didn’t do every little thing myself!” and then the dam burst. She talked for ten straight minutes about millennials and work ethic and kids who don’t want to work. She talked about lazy help and impatient clients. Finally, she summed up by saying: “People!” and then taking a long drink of wine.

I waited for a moment and then said,

“Roberta, it sounds like you have a horrible job.” I smiled, because I was half joking. But only half.

“Yeah, well, my boss is a slave driver!” she said. She was obviously talking about herself.

“So why don’t you quit?” I asked.

Here are Roberta’s real problems:

She needs to get out of the way and let her staff–young, energetic and happy–do their jobs. Even if they do their jobs less effectively than she does, they’ll do them happier without her. And in the service industry, a smiling server is more important than almost anything else.
She needs to stop micromanaging. That’s obvious. That means teaching her staff what to do instead of waiting for them to make the wrong decisions.
She must replace herself as hostess.
She should probably take a few weeks off.

 

In the restaurant business, the hostess is really the sales manager. They set up the patron and influence their purchase. The sales role is the hardest for most entrepreneurs to give up, but they must, or they’ll never move beyond Farmer Phase. And many owners simply aren’t the best salespeople for their own service.

Roberta has begun to hate her job, and it shows. The food is still good–heck, it’s amazing–but Roberta’s attitude sours the sweetest dessert. As Maya Angelou wrote, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Success in the restaurant industry–like the gym industry, the legal industry and the preschool industry–isn’t determined by how the food is plated, or even how it’s priced. Success pivots on how people feel after a night out at your place. Roberta might once have been the best hostess in town, but now it’s time to fire herself from that role and be an entrepreneur instead.

I said, “Roberta, tomorrow I’ll take YOU out for lunch. We’ll go somewhere else. Don’t be late.” And we started talking about Farmer Phase.

Founder Kids: A TwoBrain Radio BONUS Episode

This year at the TwoBrain Workshop, we’re running a day camp for kids.

It’s called “Founder | Farmer | Tinker | Thief”, and the kids spend the day creating their businesses, doing CrossFit, shooting videos, building obstacle courses, solving Escape Rooms, picking and preparing food to eat, doing Ninja Warrior challenges, launching catapults they build, designing their brand, playing Minute to Win It…and there’s even more. The week culminates in a one-hour “Shark Tank” where the kids, aged 8-12, pitch their business to a local entrepreneur. They invite their parents; we record the whole thing.

It’s pretty awesome.

 

One of the media experiences the kids do each week is a podcast interview. In this episode, five of the FFTT kids share their new businesses with TwoBrain Radio.

 

.

Listen to the podcast on iTunes here
Or on Stitcher here
Or on Buzzsprout here

Fitness For Founders, Farmers, Tinkers and Thieves

As you mature as an entrepreneur, you need different strategies for your business. But you also need to grow as a leader, both in body and brain.

 

One of the crucial tools every entrepreneur needs is a fitness base. Without a tool to manage stress, buffer cortisol, create perspective and trigger happy hormones, an entrepreneur is fighting an avoidable battle. Exercise is a shortcut to self-optimization for leaders. Nutrition helps owners enter their optimal performance state.

 

As a business owner, you must consider yourself a mental athlete. That means constant training and practice. But Founders, Farmers and Tinkers don’t need the SAME practice, just as a weekend jogger doesn’t require the same routine as an Olympic athlete. After over 20 years in the fitness industry, training and tracking the minds of entrepreneurs around the world, here are my recommendations for exercise and nutrition:

 

(Not sure if you’re a Founder, a Farmer, a Tinker or a Thief? Take our test here.)

 

Founder Phase: Just Keep Swimming

You’re hustling. You’re grinding. You’re doing all the things. You’re spending 60 hours every week in your business. When do you have time to workout? How do you find the motivation?

The key to fitness in the Founder phase is to find one program and stick to it.

You need to minimize the decisions in your day. You need something fast. And you need to maximize the time you have.

Start simply: take walks. Copy bodybuilding routines. Go to CrossFit.com and do the workouts published for free there. Buy DVDs and schedule a time to do them. Stick to your daily routine. Do the same thing, and don’t worry about perfection. Change only when your motivation to get to the gym flags.

I like CrossFit.com because the workouts hold my interest: constantly varied functional movement covers all the bases in a very short time. But your priority is simply getting exercise in at least four times every week. If you prefer dance or yoga, do those.

Prescription: 4 bouts of exercise, lasting at least 40 minutes each, every week. Mix aerobic work with strength training. Keep it simple. If you’re bored, do CrossFit for novelty.

Nutrition: get off sugar. You don’t have time to be tired. Sugar creates fatigue: you get a short burst of energy, and then your body secretes too much insulin, and you crash worse than before.

 

Farmer Phase: Get A Coach

Farmers are focusing on profit and a higher value for their time. That often means testing, evaluating and growing through trial and error. To avoid “decision fatigue”, Farmers must minimize any unnecessary decisions in their lives.

Developing financial discipline is also taxing. There are daily limits to your willpower, and that reserve can be depleted long before it’s time to go to the gym. Then what happens? The gym is skipped, and the cookie cupboard beckons.

Owners in the Farmer Phase can benefit from having a fitness coach for two reasons:

First, you don’t have time or bandwidth to figure out the best workout to do every day.

Second, you need an appointment to keep you on schedule. And, preferably, a neutral third party who makes you show up.

Having a personal trainer or coach who tracks your schedule and creates your workouts is a very leverageable resource. Though money might still be tight in Farmer Phase, an investment in a fitness coach can have a huge ROI. Exercise is like a physical and mental reset; if you’re able to squeeze out two good hours of focused work every day without exercise, you can stretch that time to four hours with exercise. Imagine doubling your productivity every day: what’s that worth? How about making decisions with a clear head and positive attitude?

The reason no one can break down the ROI on exercise is because its benefits are so far-reaching. We say it’s mandatory.

Prescription:

Four bouts of exercise, as determined by a professional coach. You don’t need more exercise than you did in Farmer phase, but it becomes more critical to have a coach. One of your four workouts should be outside, and one should have an aerobic focus.

Do your workouts before your “focus window” of productivity in the day.

Hire a coach (a personal trainer, or join a CrossFit group class).

Nutrition: try the Zone Diet, or work to balance macronutrients. Keep your blood sugar level at all costs. If you can’t figure out the Zone, or don’t know what a “macro” is, don’t worry: get a nutrition coach.

 

Tinker Phase: Flow State Over All

In the Tinker Phase, the entrepreneur’s focus moves from building a business to building himself. Higher-level finance, operations and sales require a higher-level owner.

That means more time spent in a focused state to produce optimal work. It means more mentorship to achieve clarity. And it means a renewed focus on cognitive fitness.

Entrepreneurs in the Tinker Phase need less intensity in their workouts (they have enough cortisol, thanks) and more time in Flow State. That means a shift toward long and slow: aerobic work at 70% of max heart rate or less, and strength training sessions the are quick and don’t require heavy focus.

Ironically, the need for coaching decreases in Tinker Phase, but the need for accountability rises. With so many options, a Tinker can easily waste time. So owners should focus on sticking to a specific schedule, and answering to someone who’s making sure they’re on track. But since a Tinker doesn’t require the intensity, novelty or high-skill movement in their workouts, they don’t necessarily need constant coaching.

Now, many Tinkers hire a personal trainer or go to a group class because it simplifies their life. And they can also afford more attention for the first time. That’s great. Many others use their free time to get away from the office and go for a long jog or bike ride.

We teach a workout plan called Flow State. Flow State is a program that includes physical exercise, cognitive exercise and mindset practice. Our goal is simple: to reduce distraction and extend the time a Tinker spends in a state of “flow”. High-skill exercise is less necessary to achieve that state. And sometimes, a short eight-minute workout is enough.

Prescription: Just enough exercise to extend and enhance your cognition. I recommend Flow State (available on our site soon!) or something similar. If you find yourself refreshed after your current workouts, stick with them. If you don’t know where to start exercising, get a coach and explain your goals (you’re a mental athlete, not a physical athlete.)

Nutrition: Protein at every meal, stay off the sugar, limit your alcohol intake, drink twice as much water as you want to. The Zone is effective at maintaining your blood sugar levels. If you have other specific fitness goals, like weight loss, place them behind the fitness you need as a leader. Weight loss will happen with any exercise if you control your nutrition.

 

Thief Phase: Live Longer

In the Thief Phase of entrepreneurship, your goal is to establish your legacy and mentor others.

The longer you live–and the more vigor you have–the stronger your legacy will be. And the more you’ll enjoy it!

Our grandfathers retired at 60 with a gold watch and a huge problem: they had nothing to do, and no sense of purpose. Some might have golfed, but many–including mine–landed in a recliner and watched game shows all day.

Most Thieves aren’t young. That means they’re not going to compete at a high level. But they should still compete. Thieves should regularly learn and play new sports. They should travel, and challenge themselves physically in new ways.

As a body ages, it loses mobility. Long-term immobility puts more people in nursing homes than cognitive decline does. That means you’ll need help getting off the toilet while you’re still sharp enough to be embarrassed about it.

Thriving entrepreneurs in the Thief Phase focus on new experiences and readiness. They train for strength and adventure, and work hard to maintain their mobility.

Prescription: book four adventures every year. Each should include the necessity of fitness: hiking Macchu Picchu, cycling a stage of the Tour de France, or even a walking tour of the Grand Canyon. Plan to move. Then work backward from that goal to determine your exercise plan.

Nutrition: practice intermittent fasting to improve glucose tolerance and Stoicism. This is not the time to “let it all go”. Fast for one day every month. Begin supplementing for bone and joint health. Prioritize vegetables over everything else, but include protein at every meal.

 

There’s a great chance you’ll live to 120. Act on it.

 

If you’re not sure where to start, call a fitness coach. Need a recommendation? I’ll give you one. Email chris@twobrainbusiness.com.