Time is Tight?
Why wait start now, your time is finite!
The decisions we make in business can quite equally apply to anything in life… as the subtitle implies none of us are here forever!
One of the things I’ve realised more as I get older is that we only have so much time, one day we are here the next we could be gone forever, that’s a big reason not to dither… dither ye not I say!
In our small business we aim to make decisions fast, to me it’s usually ‘Yes let’s do it’ or a firm ‘No, why the hell would I want to do that’ it’s very rare that I have a maybe, because maybes spend too much time on nothings… in my opinion. You may have your take on it and that’s fine with me, dither ye on.
When we first started our business eight years ago I must admit I was prone to consider and over think things a little too much; what would people think, will this collaboration work, should I take this contract, those days are long gone because I realised that it gets you nowhere, and you can end up wasting everyones time.
When I say move fast and ‘do it’ that comes with safeguards of course, if you see whatever you’re are doing failing then tack or stop and bin it.
Often the first iteration is not quite perfect, so be open to failing, in fact embrace that as a learning. Some of the best things I’ve done have come after multiple attempts, just keep that in mind.
TIME… is the most important commodity of all. Let’s take a guesstimate that I expire aged 80, that’s reasonable as it fits in with most longevity charts for a male.
80 years is equal to 4,160 Weeks, 29,120 Days, 698,880 Hours, or 41,932,800 Minutes, they’re not massive figures, especially when I’m just over 3/4 of the way through my 80 year allocation!
I’m down to 988 Weeks or only 6,916 Days!! Of course I might live a few years longer but one thing is for certain, we all have an expiry date.
One of the things our business does for clients is to look at their asset groups and by applying Criticality tools ascertain the strategy needed for the upkeep and care of them as a group.
I consider the longevity using my experience and other tools, suggest methods of inspection, and look at the environment they operate in. Many look on these assets as just machines whereas I look on them as a clinician may look at a patient. I’m looking for the best affordable care so that they last in good condition for longer.
What has this got to do with my time? Well I consider my own most critical asset in a similar way, and I do this with an aim of getting the maximum good health and longevity from this most important asset… Me!
This is the thinking I apply to the assets clients ask me to look at, some I visit are in poor health (the assets!) and I can confirm or deny this one way or the other by applying instruments like Acoustic Emission, Ultrasound, Thermography, Vibration or Oil Sampling. This is very similar to me or you when we visit a Doctor’s surgery, they’ll use a stethoscope (acoustic), take your temperature (thermal) or send you for blood samples (fluid sampling) all will give indicators of your underlying health just like with the machines.
By taking action on these outputs we can extend our time here on planet Earth and likewise those machines can be cared for in good health for longer.
In all cases this saves precious finite TIME… this is the only commodity we can’t buy, but you can save.
So my advice is to become more decisive and aim to not waste your time.
I’m not a big fan of Warren Buffet but I did like his answer when asked what was the most important commodity to him, ‘Time’ was his answer… because even with all his wealth it was the only thing he couldn’t buy with money.