The biggest threat to business leaders is not laziness, but constant hyperactivity.
When you are frantically replying to emails and WhatsApp all the time, here is what happens:
1. Your mind is so caught up in this survival game that you can hardly step back to assess the real dangers and opportunities in your business. But that is a leader’s real job — to solve the problems that have not yet arisen.
2. A hyper-busy mind can’t think creatively, connect the dots, or generate fresh ideas. For that, you need mental space. That is one reason why companies organize off-sites. That is also why Bill Gates used to spend two weeks in the wilderness, cut off from busyness.
3. When you are constantly busy, you feel like a martyr who will be rewarded by karma. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t give a damn, unless your products or services are good.
4. Hyperactivity leads to bad decisions. And the more hyperactive you are, the more bad decisions you make.
In fact, the founder of one imploding EdTech startup used to proudly proclaim that he worked 18 hours a day, for 18 years. You can’t extrapolate one data point, but take it for what it’s worth.
Think of your work as a vector quantity — both magnitude and direction matter. Hyperactivity amplifies the magnitude and derails the direction.
– Rajan