Studio Note #76: Dividing to Conquer.
Persuasion and precision.
There's a tendency when you're building a business to treat every opportunity as an obligation.
Every idea deserves attention. Every initiative needs momentum. Every part of the business should be growing.
At least, that's what we tell ourselves.
But there's a difference between having opportunities and having the resources to pursue them effectively.
Over the past year, we've been developing multiple businesses, building new offerings and exploring different ways to generate revenue. Some of those efforts have started producing results. Others are still finding their footing.
And somewhere along the way, it became clear that we needed to reconsider how we were dividing our attention.
That required a conversation about priorities, responsibilities and where each of us could make the greatest contribution.
One of the things I've come to appreciate about partnerships is that having a shared objective doesn't mean having identical responsibilities.
We bring different experiences, relationships and abilities to the table. Trying to divide every responsibility equally doesn't necessarily make the partnership more equitable. Sometimes it just means neither person is doing what they do best.
The same principle applies to how we allocate our time.
There are things I'd love to be doing right now that simply aren't the best use of my attention. They're good ideas. Some might even become great opportunities. But pursuing all of them simultaneously risks making meaningful progress on none of them.
So we're making some decisions about where to concentrate our efforts, what to maintain and what can wait.
It's not a particularly dramatic revelation. In fact, it's probably something we should have addressed sooner.
But there's a certain relief that comes from recognizing that you don't have to do everything just because you can.
And you don't have to divide your attention equally to divide the work effectively.