Working On The Business

When stepping away is the wrong move.

Most people in business groups say the same thing when asked how they leveled up: “I hired, stepped back, and started working on the business instead of in it.” It sounds smart because it’s straight from the E-Myth playbook. And in some situations, sure, it helps. But it assumes one important thing: that the business model is already correct.

Mine wasn’t.

Before returning to painting full-time, I helped a startup grow from $1,500 in out-of-pocket expenses to a $30 million valuation in 18 months.

We had 60 employees.

Good people. Sharp people.

But no one else saw the opportunity because they weren’t close enough to see it.

I didn’t scale by stepping back. I scaled by moving closer.

Everyone else was focused on generating leads, pushing volume, managing sales teams, and building bloated infrastructure with high overhead.

Stepping back just disconnects you from the problem.

I identified that 3% of actions accounted for the majority of results. Once in motion, I eliminated the remaining 97%.

This was not achieved through delegation. I eliminated the remaining 97% by omission, not by delegation.

Had I been "working on the business" instead of in it, I would have missed it all. That opportunity only presented itself because I was there.