# Entrepreneur Productivity

The entrepreneur trap: wearing all hats means none fit properly.

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## What Actually Fails

**Everything is Urgent**
When you own it all, everything feels critical. Inbox, sales, product, support, accounting — all screaming. Nothing gets deep attention.

**Founder Martyrdom**
"I'll sleep when we're funded." "No one can do this but me." This creates burnout AND prevents building a company that works without you.

**Shiny Object Syndrome**
New feature ideas, new markets, new partnerships — each exciting opportunity dilutes focus on what actually matters.

**Building Before Selling**
Months perfecting product while ignoring whether anyone will pay. Building feels productive; selling feels scary.

**Working IN the Business**
Trapped in operations, customer support, daily fires. No time for strategy, growth, or the work only you can do.

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## What Actually Works

**One Thing Per Week** — What's the ONE thing that moves the needle? Everything else is noise.

**CEO Day** — One day per week doing only strategic work: planning, reviewing metrics, thinking. No customer work.

**Default Delegation** — "Who else could do this?" should be your first question, not "How do I do this?"

**Revenue First** — Talk to customers before building. Sell before coding. Revenue validates; everything else is assumption.

**Timeboxed Experiments** — "We'll try this for 2 weeks with $X budget." Clear boundaries prevent endless exploration.

**Ruthless Prioritization** — The graveyard of startups is full of companies that tried to do too much.

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## Energy Reality

- Founder energy is the company's battery — protect it
- Context switching is the default state — minimize it
- The business reflects your limits — grow yourself to grow it
- If you're always tired, the business model might be wrong

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## The Runway Reality

- Time is the one resource you can't raise more of
- Every hour spent on low-impact work is runway burned
- "Later" often means "never" when cash runs out

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## The Real Issue

Entrepreneur productivity problems are often prioritization problems: without external structure, everything competes equally. The skill is saying no to good things so you can focus on the right things.
