Derek Sivers on Delegation

Delegate or die: the self-employed trap. | Derek Sivers:

Because my team was running the business, I was free to actually improve the business!

I moved to California, just to make it clear that the running of things was up to them.

I was still working 12-hour days, but now I was spending all my time on improvements, optimizations and innovations. To me, this was the fun stuff. This was play, not work.

Ah, the Holy Grail of small business. Delegation is not about doing less, its about getting back the freedom to do the things that made you want to be in business in the first place. This is why any business owner or freelancer must learn to delegate.

Craig Newmark founded Craig’s List and is now known for doing nothing but customer service. Thats his choice and effective delegation is what made it possible.

Every business owner has their own cup-o-tea. My cup-o-tea is closer to Derek’s. I love working on and building businesses, but not working in them. You may love designing or writing or managing projects. Your goal is to figure out how to do more of “that.”

The team I’m putting together at Cranking Widgets will help you, but first you must be open to the idea of delegation. Many think its not possible or not worth their time or they just can’t find someone to do anything right. These are all terrible excuses.

The hardest part is letting go of that first task that you (incorrectly) assume no one can do better than you. It’s mostly psychological. Once that first task gets delegated, and you realize you’ll never have to do it again, delegation becomes addicting. All those other excuses holding you back will magically disappear.