Drew Karczewski

Every year for the past few years in August, I have attended the Global Leadership Summit. Based in Chicago, with host sites around the world, the main purpose is to gather entrepreneurs from around the world to share their stories. Some share life accomplishments and hurdles, others motivation, and some speak about actionable concepts and strategies that you can apply to your life and business. With a different lineup each year, there is always diversity and new ideas. However there is one annual constant, the champion speaker Craig Groeschel, who gets me really excited. In my first year he taught the following concept that has stuck with me ever since and I am constantly asking the question; is this good enough to move on?

Think about being in high school. Your teacher just assigned you a project that you have to complete, its a PowerPoint, and you have one weekend to get it done. Thinking that it is unfair, you put your head down and start grinding away at the project. Knowing you have other homework and responsibilities, you put in 10 hours in the project. After analyzation, you think your project is A work but not perfect, so now you have reached a decision that you have to make. Do you put in the roughly 2 hours of extra work to make the work perfect, or do you move on and tend to your other responsibilities? Most people would tend to say put the two hours in, and make it your best work, thinking the rest will get done with the response "you'll make it work". However is that the right response, with this concept Craig Groeschel begs to differ.

Firstly, you should analyze the concept of ROI. Often times people forget that time has a value, and in this case it is the investment that you need to return on. Is the time you are missing out on your other responsibilities, homework, sleep and potential enjoyment worth the extra 10% on the grade. Now lets shift the scenario to a business construct. Is the extra time on a presentation that you already are confident will be successful, worth time away from your family? Is it worth time away from your healthy habits and routines? Is it worth the possibility of missing crucial life moments? In most cases the answer is no. Like all good things, there is a top to a curve, or a sweet spot where the effort put in has a maximum gain, where you do not overdo it. There is a time when analyzing that curve where you have to make the decision that your time becomes worth more than the value you can bring.

Now I am not promoting doing average work and expecting great results, however as I referenced a few weeks ago with the Eisenhower quadrants, your time is valuable. When it comes time to decide or delete, and you have completed something fulfilling all the requirements and now focused on the details of the project, eventually you have to ask yourself, at what point is it "good enough to move on?"

As Hernan Cortez was marching in to the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, he and his men were outnumbered. Weary of their defeat, soldiers of the Spanish army were distracted and unmotivated to continue with the plan. Frustrated from the lack of motivation of his soldiers Hernan Cortes instructed his soldiers to burn the boats. Remove the one thing connecting them to the home land. Remove all other options to retreat, forcing them to come together to complete the task at hand. Though this angered the army, it pushed their backs against the wall with one thought on their minds, victory. As predicted, the Spanish were successful with a complete conquer of the land in a record 93 days.

Many of us find ourselves struggling to make the jump that needs to be taken for personal growth. We are comfortable in the situation that we are in and though we crave more, we are unwilling to take the risk and therefore stay complacent. Until the full immersion into the goals you are trying to pursue, you will lack the outcome that is desired. In a world that is not infinite take the jump, take the risk, and burn your ships. Remove the safety blankets that are associated with comfort and embrace uncertainty. When there is a will there is a way, so make it happen. What things are you uncertain to try? Make it a goal this year to try at your fullest potential and see what the outcome is, it may surprise you.