Welcome to One Thing Better. Each week, the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine (that's me) shares one way to achieve a breakthrough at work — and build a career or company you love.
Please forward this email to someone you support.
And if you were forwarded this email, please subscribe here!
You take on too much.
Why? Many reasons. You're ambitious. You're enthusiastic. You don't know how to say no. Then you get over-committed and overwhelmed.
Here's a question you should ask yourself more: What's actually worth saying yes to?
And here's my counterintuitive answer: Before saying yes to something new, you should say no to something old.
Today, I'll give you a strategy to filter commitments — so that you can feel lighter, freer, and more focused on what actually matters.
But first, let's start with a woman who said no to a big opportunity, and the golden reason why...
When saying no leads to success
My good pal Jonathan Goodman just wrote a new book, called Unhinged Habits: A Counterintuitive Guide for Humans to Have More by Doing Less. It's a fantastic read for anyone feeling overwhelmed and seeking focus. Strong recommendation.
In the book, Jon shares the story of a talent agent named Samantha who spent her 20s and early 30s working relentlessly — long hours, constant travel, endless dinners. Eventually she rose to run her agency's entire Canadian operation.
Then an international leadership role opened up. Everyone expected her to pursue it. But she didn't.
Jon asked her why. She said it would have provided her with more money, bigger clients, and more recognition — but at the cost of more time away from her family, and other things she wanted in life.
"Ten years ago, I would have taken it without thinking twice," she told Jon. "But I've realized something important: Ambition isn't wrong, but chaotic ambition without boundaries is a fire that burns your life to ash while you stand there holding the match."
That's my favorite line in Jon's book. We must draw the line between ambition and chaotic ambition without boundaries.
The framework that changes everything
As I read Samantha's story, I remembered a conversation I had with Mary Beth Westmoreland, a VP of Technology at Amazon. She told me that when her team starts a new project, they often eliminate an old project at the same time.
"We ask our teams: What's the most important thing we need to spend time on to make the biggest impact?" she told me. "Sometimes that means we're going to stop doing things that are not making the most difference."
At a company, you can do this with data and metrics. But imagine applying this standard to yourself. If you're going to start something new, you must stop doing something old.
There's beautiful logic to this:
- You must decide if something new is valuable than your current commitments
- You must ask: "If I say yes to this, is it worth giving up that?"
- You must make your commitments compete for your attention
The three-question filter
I challenged myself to think: How would I apply Mary Beth's framework to myself? How do I know what's worth saying no to?
The answer starts with goals.
Mary Beth's language is instructive: "We're going to stop doing things that are not making the most difference." To accomplish that, we must define "the most difference" for ourselves. What accelerates our goals? What improves our lives the most?
Once we know, we can optimize for it with three simple questions.
Here's the framework:
Question 1: What's not making the most difference?
An example:
A few years ago, I was at a crossroads. An exciting new business opportunity arose, but I was maxed out on time. So I asked: What do I want right now?
My answer: I want things that bring me joy, create financial stability, leverage my skills without burdening me with operations, and leave time for friends and family.
With that in mind, I asked Mary Beth's question: What isn't making a difference toward that goal?
The answer felt clear: At the time, I was running an online community. I loved the members, but the operations consumed time and energy. Growth had stalled, and it barely made money.
The community definitely wasn't making a difference towards my goals.
Question 2: What would happen if I stopped?
It's hard to imagine ending things. Here's why: We often think about the act of ending something — imagining saying goodbye, and how hard or sad that'll feel.
But endings aren't just about one moment. They're about all the moments afterward.
When I imagined ending my community, my first reaction was: I'll disappoint these great people. But then I kept imagining. What would my life be like a week, a month, a year later — once I reclaim all that time and energy?
In truth, it felt good.
Question 3: What purpose did it serve?
Everything serves some function. It taught us, trained us, or expanded us.
So if you're considering saying goodbye to something, ask: What purpose did this serve for me? And has that purpose already been served?
For me, the community served many purposes — I learned about community functions, met great people, had fun. All of this would remain true even if it ended. The purpose had been fulfilled.
The result
After closing my community, one member wrote: "As a business owner, you've shown me that it's okay to try something new and that it doesn't have to be forever. It's okay for that thing to evolve or not, and ending one thing doesn't mean the end of all things."
That's right!
I keep thinking back to that line in Jon's book: "Ambition isn't wrong, but chaotic ambition without boundaries is a fire that burns your life to ash while you stand there holding the match."
The goal here is to create those boundaries. To make sure that our ambition is focused, and that it serves our needs.
We do not need to do everything, or even most things. We can start things and stop them. Say yes and say no. Start projects and abandon them.
The only project you really need to keep going is yourself. So say yes to that. Everything else is up for discussion.
That's how to do one thing better.
Finally, simple bookkeeping that works!
I hate bookkeeping.
For years I let transactions pile up, panic-categorized before taxes, and paid my accountant extra to clean up the mess.
Then I tried Kick.
What surprised me most: I actually set it up the same day. Connected my accounts, answered a few questions, and it just started working. No tutorials. SO simple.
Now it just runs. Transactions are categorized automatically. Real accountants review everything. When my CPA asks for my books, they're clean. First try.
Honestly, this saved me at least 20 hours last year.
If you run a business, freelance, or do contract work, Kick has a wild tax-season offer: Sign up before March 1st and they'll do all your 2025 bookkeeping for free, plus 25% off 2026 — a deal worth over $2,000.
Use code JASON25 here.
I don't usually promote tools, but this one genuinely fixed a problem I'd been avoiding for years. If you've been putting off your bookkeeping, this is your excuse to finally deal with it.
Final notes for today...
P.S. Ever eaten at Jersey Mike's? I talked to their new CEO about taking over a giant brand, and his leadership strategy to make it even larger. Take a listen!
P.P.S. Send this newsletter to someone who needs it! Forward to them, or just send this link to today's edition.
P.P.P.S. Want my help in a 1:1 call? I'm on Intro, where people book my time for quick consulting calls. Let's talk!
That's all for this week! See you next Tuesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment