Top o’ the Mornin’ to Ya!
TLDR: Just because someone recommends a tool, system, or approach doesn’t mean it fits your specific situation or more importantly God’s plan. Successful leaders learn to evaluate advice against their actual business process and family needs, choosing solutions that create streamlined efficiency rather than complicated detours that waste time and resources.
What?
As a software engineer working with entrepreneurs and tech companies, I constantly heard the phrase “they told me so” when it came to business advice. Beginning entrepreneurs would go to masterminds, trainings, networking groups, and service clubs, sharing their stories and collecting recommendations. One person would say get this CRM, another would recommend that billing system, someone else would suggest a different tool – and each piece was good in isolation.
But here’s what I observed: companies knew how they made money and who their customers were, but in the middle they had tools scattered all over the place. Their business process went from here, up over there, around over here, up to there, and around again before they could deliver and get paid. All because they implemented every piece of advice without evaluating how it fit their actual workflow.
The same thing happens at home. I’ll think we need to drive up to Gooseberry Falls Park for a big hiking adventure, or plan some elaborate outing, when really my spouse just wants the attention I’m giving you right now. My kids want that same focused attention. My son is perfectly happy heading out in the woods here killing ogres and monsters, and my daughter loves making slime with stuff we already have at home.
Why?
As Kingdom Family Leaders, we’re constantly bombarded with advice about what we should do, what systems we should implement, what programs we should join. We get caught up in the rush and madness of trying to optimize everything, but we don’t take time to evaluate whether that advice actually fits our specific situation and process.
This applies whether you’re a beginning entrepreneur getting your systems set up or you’re in the C-suite making strategic decisions. The question isn’t whether the tool or advice is good – it’s whether it serves your streamlined effort to serve customers at the utmost level while making the profit needed to pay your teams and build efficiently.
As leaders, our job is to see that we have systems and processes in place to ensure our systems and processes actually work together, not against each other.
Lesson
Before implementing any advice, you need to map out your actual process first. Whether it’s business operations or family relationships, understand the flow from start to finish. Then when someone gives you advice or recommends a solution, evaluate it against this question: Does this create a more streamlined path to my desired outcome, or does it add unnecessary complexity?
The goal is efficiency without waste. When you have a pain point or bottleneck, you’re not looking for some external solution that takes you on a detour. You’re looking for something that fits right where the bottleneck is and creates the efficiency you need.
I learned to adopt a process for writing processes – a systematic way to evaluate what should be added to our workflow and how to document a new process. The same principle applies at home: instead of creating elaborate solutions for connection, often the simplest approach that addresses the actual need is most effective.
Apply
Write down one thing that someone told you to get or do – either in business or at home – that you now recognize is creating unnecessary complexity instead of streamlined efficiency. This could be a tool you’re using that doesn’t integrate well, a program you joined that doesn’t fit your actual needs, or even a relationship approach that feels forced instead of natural.
Next to it, write what you actually need in that area and identify the simplest solution that addresses the real bottleneck or need. Then commit to either removing the complicated solution or replacing it with something that creates genuine efficiency in your process.
You be blessed!
Stop Taking Every Piece of Advice: Why “They Told Me So” Is Ruining Your Success
