Fire Yourself!

Fire Yourself!

The cool thing about the work I do is that I get to see a lot of different vantage points in one’s life and career.  I’ve worked with clients, starting out all the way through retirement and beyond.  I’ve had the pleasure of seeing friends and clients climb the corporate ladder to the highest rungs.  Being somewhat of a student of the game, you pick up things along the way that are transferable to any job and any career.  Today, I’m going to focus on one of my favorite observations that high flyers do to reach the ultimate level of success.

The concept is about firing yourself and doing it over and over again.  You see, one of the keys to success in life, I believe, is to constantly evolve.  To learn from the past and use it to catapult you forward.  However, there is one critical and massive roadblock we all face: time.  Time is our biggest friend and most certainly our greatest enemy.  In the infamous words of my man The Boss, “you realize you have a limited amount of time to do your work, raise your family, and try to do something good.”

If we are given a finite amount of time in this world and we are rinsing and repeating what we did yesterday and yesteryear, then we may live a happy life, but I’d argue we aren’t evolving.  I’ve noticed in corporate America that evolving is critical, which is why it is imperative that you fire yourself.  What I mean by that is look at the things that fill your time at work or at home.  What of those jobs can you simply fire tomorrow and stop doing forever?  That may mean hiring someone to do your lawn or clean your home, or that may mean delegating portions of your job to the people who work under you. 

The key here is these things you might be good at, or even very good at.  Furthermore, you may be delegating to someone who is not as competent or efficient at doing said task as you, and that is ok.  For starters, what a great opportunity to have the people under you evolve themselves, which will lift them and your organization.  More importantly, though, what will happen is you will free up your time to focus on higher-level skills and jobs that are critical to your constant evolution and thus success.

Now, the best way I know how to do that, both personally and vicariously through others, is to constantly fire yourself.  By looking in the mirror and saying next year, I will cease to do XY and Z, it will free you up to develop more and better skills.  This is what the highest functioning and most successful individuals I notice doing on a consistent basis.  They don’t rest on their laurels and are rarely complacent. 

What’s the catch? 

The catch, however, is that it takes work and resolve.  You can’t sit back and rinse and repeat what you did yesterday; you must put the work in to want to improve at the highest level possible.  It may also take investment on your end or a level of discomfort you are not accustomed to.  I like to say around my company that people should be comfortable being uncomfortable.  It is a kind of credo around Diversified, as I believe what got us here will prevent us from getting there. 

Change is hard, change is tiring, and change is scary.  In addition, change is invigorating, change is necessary, and change is the thing that allows you to elevate your skills and outlook on life.  It is innate for a baby or child to keep wanting to learn and figure new things out; the question is, why are we so apt to get complacent and stop that childlike curiosity when we get older?  I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I can tell you the most successful people I know and work with have this hunger and this yearning to put ego aside and continually fire themselves.

Question

I’m working on my next year’s list of things I plan to cease doing in my personal and professional life (lots of dishes, haha).  But today’s blog isn’t about me; it is about you and your success, whether it be personal or professional.  So, I will leave you with this: what are you doing in 2025 that you should fire yourself from doing in 2026 to enable the maximum level of growth in your life?

As always, stay wealthy, healthy, and happy.