Asking the right question can have a huge impact on your business.
I recently read the book "Who not How" by Dan Sullivan. I like it a lot. It's on my top 10 list of all-time favourite business strategy books. Because asking the right question, as suggested by the author, can make all the difference between being a freelancer and a business owner.
Whenever we are faced with a new task, we tend to ask: 'How to do this?"
And then, we end up burning the midnight oil, doing all the research and ground work. Figuring out the 'How'. Because this is how we are hard-wired. It has been ingrained in us since childhood to ask 'How to do this?'.
As a consequence, we get us stuck in the treadmill of doing all the work ourselves and being a freelancer. Instead of working on our business, we work in our business.
Dan Sullivan suggests a different question - to change the question from "How" to "Who".
When we start asking "Who can make this happen?", it opens a whole different frame of mindset, because now we can find people who can do these things for us and we can start working “on” our business rather than “in” our business.
And, the opportunities to scale suddenly grow exponentially - because now it's not us and our limited time which is restricting our business growth. Now we can grow much faster by letting others do the 'how'.
I tend to be this 'freelance guy' who would likes to figure out the 'how'. Because it's part of my self-image to be knowledgable and resourceful. I tend to take pride in knowing all the 'hows'.
However, when I look at the big picture, this attitude is not really helpful in terms of supporting my business growth. It limits me to the amount of hours I have per day. And makes me push myself to work more and harder - not very healthy in the log run neither.
Changing the question from 'how to do this' to 'who can do this' implies letting go, stop doing everything myself, and opens new opportunities to grow by getting other people involved. With me focusing on the big picture and strategy.
I highly recommend this book. If you are like me and prefer Audio books, the five hours listening time will be very well spent.