Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.
The art of execution
Published on September 8, 2006 By Draginol In Business

Want to know how to get rich? I have the secret. It's very simple. Assuming at least average levels of ambition your income will ultimately be directly proportional to the wealth you generate in a given time period.

Easy right?  Too simplistic? No, I'm being serious. The problem is that most people don't understand how to generate that wealth in the first place.  It's not having a good idea. It's not your ability to inspire others. It's your ability to execute on what you want to get done combined with the thing you wanting to get done generating income.

One of the things I see time and time again at work and elsewhere is that people may have a good idea but they want someone else to actually roll up their sleeves and do it.   I've complained before that I'm not outstanding at really specific, concrete thing.  But I suppose that's really not the whole story. I think I'm pretty good at execution.  I am willing to do what needs to be done to get the job done -- even if I'm doing menial things or things. 

To use my own business as an example in a given day I might:

  • Design a webpage that is actually on the server (as opposed to writing up content in MS Word and giving it to someone else -- as soon as you're handing it off to someone else to do, you've decreased your value -- delegation is good but you have to weigh it carefully).
  • Write code (as opposed to put together specifications or guidelines to hand off to someone else)
  • Write documentation in both its rough form and in the final form (as opposed to writing a bunch of notes, handing it off to someone to make into Word and then handing that to someone who makes it in Quark Express or Adobe inDesign -- I'll do the whole thing).
  • Take screenshots.
  • Do a video demo.
  • Test the software. (as opposed to having someone else just make a report and relyng on that)
  • Make a skin.
  • Make a theme.
  • Write a mailer, FTP it to the mail server, use a cryptic mailing package to send it out.
  • Set up my own machine (which lets me know more about my own computer).

In other words, I try to be as self-sufficient as possible. I rarely let myself get stymied because I am waiting for someone else to do something.  I delegate (increasingly) on things where me doing it myself would result in me not executing on something else that is more profitable.  I used to personally send out the news items on our software to third party sites. I don't do that anymore usually. Not because it's not worth doing but because it took time away from doing other things that generate more revenue.  It's still a very important thing, however.

The one thing I can't execute on that regularly frustrates me and is something I hope to address when I have more time is web development. I hate wanting a new website created that I am certain I could whip together both the layout, graphics, and SQL in an afternoon if I just knew how to do it but having to wait for others to do it. Drives me crazy. It's my biggest profesional weakness not knowing ASP.NET and SQL.  But I digress.

The point being, if you want to be successful -- really successful -- you will have to teach yourself the skills in your job so that you can cut down the number of people you rely on to get your job done.  If the widget your making is worth $1 million but you need 5 people to be involved to make the widget, then your value is diluted. 

And often, increasing your value means learning how to do things that seem menial or "not worth your time" but in the bigger scheme of things, it's not just how good of a job you do, it's how good of a job you do per unit of time. And when you have to involve other people, you dilute yourself.  You can mitigate that dilution to a degree if you make yourself an expert on executing your plans and goals via other people. But I think the best strategy is to do the things you can do yourself (and learn how to do as much as you can) and then learn how to get those you do rely on to execute what they have to do as fast as they can while maintaining the required quality levels.

 


Comments
on Sep 08, 2006
Great points. I agree that learning and doing things yourself is a great reward. BTW, did you ever receive my e-mail?
on Sep 08, 2006
ID - no.  Could you resend it?
on Sep 08, 2006
Yes. I just sent it again. Let me know if you don't receive it.

Thanks.
on Sep 08, 2006
Very good points, draginol. I realized that back when Barry Sanders was playing for the Lions. I would hear complaints that Barry wasn't worth his salary because the Lions weren't a Superbowl bound team. I pointed out that Barry was WELL worth his salary because he put butts in the seats. Measure how many tickets the Lions sold WITH Barry Sanders vs. how many they would have sold without.

Similarly, when Nolan Ryan was in his waning years, people came to see the games because Ryan was on the mound, even though he didn't have his best stuff left.
on Sep 08, 2006
So a ditch digger that consistently executes what needs to be done is going to get rich?

Being facetious here.
on Sep 09, 2006
A ditch digger's revenue is still tied to the value (wealth generation) of what they are doing.  If the ditch digger could dig an entire ditch by himself and the ditch being dug was worth $50,000 then the ditch digger would be very valuable.
on Dec 23, 2006
Hello,
on Dec 28, 2006
Again?