Building a Tortoise Business
I had a really rough two weeks. I had some health issues that, let’s face it, were largely caused by me not taking good enough care of myself.
Too much rushing, too much trying to cram 36 hours into a single day, too many late nights and early mornings.
I always hoped I could reach the level of success I wanted and then slow down, before it all started to catch up with me. I know I was robbing Peter to pay Paul.
But I also deeply love the thrill of the chase. I love being hopelessly devoted to my next big idea. I love sacrificing for something that feels massive and life changing.
The thing is, however, I, like many other people, sometimes strive for things in a massively unbalanced way.
The answer isn’t to always go hard 24/7. The answer is to be the tortoise, not the hare.
The hare ran through his race at a million miles an hour, then decided to rest just before the finish line. At no point did the story ever talk about him even noticing anything magical along the path, much less stopping to smell the roses every once in a while.
Either he had tunnel vision as he raced along, or his eyes were shut as he was recovering from his massive rush.
The tortoise, on the other hand, went along at a healthy yet leisurely pace. He really didn’t have to stop and smell the roses either, because he would have been able to fully experience their beauty and fragrance as he passed by on his journey.
He had the chance to experience the warmth of the sun on his shell, the cushion of the grass under his feet, the smell of the breeze, the sparking of the brook.
The tortoise lived as he walked his path towards his goal.
He didn’t spin himself into a frenzy and ultimately make himself physically ill and burnt out. He didn’t have to sleep for hours during the day just to recover.
And in the end, he won.
How can we create beautiful, simple, elegant tortoise businesses?
Here are some principles to keep in mind:
Pace yourself. The most obvious point, but often the most overlooked, especially during the early, new, exciting phases of starting a business.
One of the most common ways to fail at business is to make a massive to-do list of all of these business-y things you plan to accomplish every single day, only to get discouraged and quit when you miss a few things because life happened along the way.
Instead, what are 3 small things that you could do every day that would compound over time and get you farther than that to-do list probably ever would?
I recommend selecting one external task (such as posting on an appropriate social media platform daily), one internal task (like doing journaling or reading to work on your business mindset and beliefs), and one bottleneck task (ie, spending 15-30 minutes daily chipping away at the biggest roadblock to your success).Live life along the journey. A few times a day, make an effort to be fully present in what you are doing.
Feel your fingers on the keyboard typing out that email. Fully focus on your client’s every word instead of thinking about what you need to buy at the store tonight. Feel that soreness in your back and remember to get up and stretch for a few moments.
And stop trying to always strive towards the future, rather than living in the present.Stay on your path. The hare originally planned to just run all the way to the finish line. But then he got distracted by a lush, cozy spot on the side of the road and stopped for a nap.
I’m sure the tortoise saw a lot of lovely areas for detours along his journey as well, but he stayed on the path, one foot in front of the other.
Most entrepreneurs are quite creative, and it is easy to distract us with shiny objects. We need to keep our eyes on the prize.
Write down the good ideas, but don’t lose your momentum and change everything for them. You can create time in your schedule to try new things, but this should not come at the cost of your 3 daily must-do’s and the other tasks you need to complete to reach your goal.If your business is burning you out, you might be doing it wrong. We are obsessed with hustle culture, and have believed the lie that if we don’t grind hard every day, we will never become anything in this world.
Yes, there is a place for hard work. But hard work should happen during “hard work time,” not every single moment of every single day. Just like the earth has its seasons and the moon has its phases, we should have ebb and flow in our schedules, too.
So build in times of constructive rest. Spend some time reading inspiring business books instead of scrolling through short-form videos. Take a walk in nature while listening to an audio book instead of staying hunched over your computer. And take a day off to do literally nothing from time to time.
It might be hard to do at first, and you might feel guilty or lazy, but trust me- you need it and you deserve it.
I encourage you to take some time this week to reevaluate your business and your lifestyle.
Are you on the right path? Are you taking steps on that path daily? And have you created a structure that keeps you working at a steady pace on the things that truly matter the most?
