Keeping Your Hands Free 解放双手，只做最重要的事，对话连续创业者、投资人好友

Sunset @Summer Palace, Beijing

Yesterday I was having a conversation with a good friend. We have known each other for over 20 years.

He has gone on to become a successful businessman. Serial entrepreneur and now investor. He has decent liquidity.

I told him about my recent struggle with a constant stream of inbound requests. People want investments, either time or capital and sometimes both. People want to invest, do joint venture with Loving Life. People want to collaborate. People invite me to advise startups, bring in new businesses. Or just catch up over lunch, dinner, drinks, zoom or call.

“How do I stay focused?” I asked him.

“It’s important to keep your hands free,” he responded.

“You should always do things that match with your value creation,” he explained, “There are days I just relax and do nothing. Vacation for half a day. Or sleep more. It’s much more important to leave the space for thinking, than to execute things all day long.”

He shared that he now only focuses on the most important things. He only does the things only he can do, for example, negotiating a new deal. The operations, he let other people handle. Sales, supply chain, he hire teams to manage and supervise them from time to time.

Keeping your hands free. What an insight.

If you follow me, you know about my upcoming trip to the Middle East, featuring the best entrepreneur and VC ecosystem from the region.

One of the entrepreneurs who have agreed to come onto my show, he is a big deal.

It turns out the invitation process for him is the most simple.

“Would you like to join my show?”

“Yes.”

“When would you like to shoot the interview? And where?”

“Anytime you want. We will have you come to our place and we can decide.”

“Perfect. Looking forward!”

The best people keep their hands free.

They do not get bogged down by a long list of to-dos.

They decide what is the most important.

They know what to do, what not to do.

They remove all frictions to doing the most important things.

The reason I was even able to have the conversation with my friend who gave me this insight was that I was “keeping my hands free.”

I went to a 7am cycling class at Equinox. After I finished the class, me and my friend based in China started talking. We talked on the phone for more than one hour.

That was, the best hour for me. Because I have learnt so much.

He told me about how every 3 days, some people would come and ask him for money. His coping mechanism iterated numeral times. From lending money to everyone, to lending a limited amount, to crafting a response to get out of some situations, to finding a solution to filter the real need for money versus people who just want to use his money to look rich. Now he has a very developed mechanism to respond to “Can I borrow some money from you?”

You are sometimes surprised by who will come asking for money. After you become rich, that’s the world you have to deal with, I guess.

We talked about emotional training. How to overcome the hard emotional feeling of saying no to people.

“Sometimes, you just have to be a bit selfish.”

The reason why it was a good conversation is that we shared the same value. We enjoy learning and we value alignment between thoughts, words and actions. We believe people with passion can change the world for the better.

Here’s to the one of the greatest campaigns the world has ever seen. “Think Different” by Apple. This work inspired me to write this post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fylsa5bgIU

Loving Life is an education and media platform, empowering everyone to be the best version of ourselves. Loving Life Conversation Series, People Who Change The World features the best entrepreneur and VC ecosystem to the world. Learn more HERE. Sample show HERE. Get in touch HERE.

原文发布于Medium：

https://medium.com/@lovinglife7/keeping-your-hands-free-b2526f048e11