What’s Important for an Entrepreneur NOT to do.

Often, entrepreneurs are so over-functioning that they feel the need to stick their nose in everything. It makes them feel good but is not necessarily what’s best for the company or its employees. They think that if their fingerprint is not on every little thing that comes out of the company, they are not being a good business owner.

The result is usually that the entrepreneur loses focus, becomes very fragmented and moves away from using his/her core strengths.

What’s worse is that he stands like a big tree over his employees and creates a shadow over them. And nothing grows well in a shadow. So, he stunts the growth of his biggest assets and therefore the company’s potential is never realized.

My dad’s cousin used to own a hair salon. He would spend about 10 minutes on my dad’s hair and charge him $20. This was with the “cousin discount.” This price used to bother my dad and one day he got the nerve to complain about it.

My dad said, “Fred, for $20 bucks you spend 10 minutes and barely cut anything off!”

Fred’s answer was classic. He said, “Sam, it’s not what I take off, it’s what I leave on.”

Nice answer I thought. And he was right. Fred could have cut my dad’s hair entirely off for the $20 but he would have looked terrible. Instead, he shaped it nicely and my dad had a handsome look!

I have learned to work this lesson in to my own business. I try to not “cut” too much into the responsibilities that belong to the talented people I have hired and work so hard to keep at my company.

It’s not about what I do all the time, it's about what I DON’T do.

It’s important to simply let my employees do their jobs. And they do them well! Especially when I give them the breathing room to do so…

My job is two-fold: To hire people much smarter than me in their respective fields and then get the hell out of their way so they can reach their potential.

It’s a win-win-win. The employee wins, I win and the company wins! Who can argue with that?

So, here’s a message to all those over-functioning entrepreneurs who think they have God standing on their shoulder guiding every move: Get the hell out of the way of your employees’ and company’s potential!

Remember, it’s not always what you do that counts; it’s often what you do NOT do that counts even more.