April 14, 2023

180: 📉 Diminishing Returns and the True Costs of Shiny Shoulds

38 minutes

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What business best practices drive you nuts? What are the best practices you wish people would follow, but they don't? These are clues to things you can be doing differently or stop doing altogether in your business.

Today’s episode starts with a few of my pet rants—err, peeves—followed by six specific examples of activities with diminishing returns in my business, ending with one big question antidote for when you, too, find yourself Sailing the Sea of Shiny Shoulds.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways

Shiny Shoulds and diminishing returns obscure the true opportunity cost of what’s really at stake, and they can quickly lead to finishing returns in terms of focus, energy, and output.

Consider the data and your intuition: Sometimes it’s hard to go a different way than “what everyone else is doing”, even when you know it’s what’s best for you. Only you know what’s at stake if you continue down a path that doesn’t resonate or produce the ROI you need.

Look for asymmetric upside when considering what’s possible when creating space: What if I stopped this altogether? What’s the worst that could happen? What’s the best? What else?

📝 Permission: Stop working on projects and with clients who are no longer serving you, that don’t meaningfully contribute to your revenue and joy.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Audit your business; what areas are past their prime or no longer aligned? If you’re being truly honest, which ones never were?

🔗 Resources

Courses: Dorie Clark’s Rapid Content Creation, Jenny’s LinkedIn Learning courses

Articles: Investopedia on Diminishing Returns, Investopedia on Sunk Cost Fallacy, 10 Things I learned from Peter Drucker

📚 Books Mentioned

Nassim Taleb’s 5-book Incerto series: Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, and Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

Jenny’s books: Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business, Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One, Life After College

🎧 Related Episodes

Free Time:

138: ⛵️ Stop Sailing the Sea of Shiny Shoulds

173: Cut Your Losses—Even While Pivoting in Public—with Khe Hy

042: How I Run My Business Without Social Media (Pivot Replay)

Pivot:

148: Penney & Jenny Show—Pivoting From Toxic Situations Toward Self-Entertainment,

305: Is What You Are Wanting Actually What’s Best For You? With Luke Burgis

304: Through the Crux—Pivoting from Acting to Entrepreneurship with Ryan Devlin

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By Jenny Blake

4.9

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