Are You Lazy Enough?

I came across this quote at Corante - Future Tense and I absolutely love it.

There are only four types of officer. First, there are the lazy, stupid ones. Leave them alone, they do no harm…Second, there are the hard- working, intelligent ones. They make excellent staff officers, ensuring that every detail is properly considered. Third, there are the hard- working, stupid ones. These people are a menace and must be fired at once. They create irrelevant work for everybody. Finally, there are the intelligent, lazy ones. They are suited for the highest office.

General Erich Von Manstein (1887-1973) on the German Officer Corps

Now let me start off by saying, I have nothing against smart, hardworking people. In fact, that is the type of person I like to hire. They make great operations / middle management. You want someone who is detail-oriented and smart so when you assign them a large project they can actually execute it at a high level. I also think they make decent entrepreneur-CEOs (but not great CEOs).

The great entrepreneur-CEO is, at his/her core, smart and lazy. Now, that’s a bit of a paradox. If you’re starting an ambitious Web site or company get ready to work 60 hours a week for the next 3 years, doing all kinds of menial tasks you hate and even giving up Friday nights to catch up on what I lovingly call “monkey work”. But and this is a big But a great entrepeneur is working towards, and then achieving, above-average profits passively. You might continue to work the 60 hours after that, but then it’s about passion, not because profits aren’t above-average. Think Larry and Sergei, thousands of paid clicks every minute from now until forever, and they only had to write the algorithm once (now they pay people to maintain it).

Let’s make this personal. For instance, if you quit working as an account manager at a large SEO firm, and then work for clients on your own, you’re only siezing some of the benefits of the entrepeneur (the ability to set your own hours, choose your projects, etc.) But in many ways you’re still a chump. (I mean that in a nice way.) There’s a cap on how many hours you can work in a week, so in effect you’re still earning an hourly wage. And for every successful SEO campaign you manage, you receive about 5% of the profit benefit, and the client receives the other 95% of the profit benefit. Finally, don’t forget that once you stop working, you stop getting paid. That’s no way to live!

If you’re continuing to move up the value chain, there should be less “work”, and more thought and strategy, at each step along the way. Of course you still need to understand the nitty gritty details of link building and usability and social media. (Otherwise your strategies will be lacking, and you won’t know if an underling is bullsh*tting you.) But a lazy entrepreneur-CEO’s time is mostly spent attracting and retaining middle manager talent, brainstorming and reviewing new ideas (picking winners from losers), and architecting strategic plans. Plus golfing or playing video games.

Hopefully this doesn’t sound too arrogant. (Meh.) In truth I’m not “there” yet, it’s something I’m working towards all the time. But I do know I have made a lot of these changes which I originally discussed in The Lazy SEO Manifesto, and I can say the profit’s better, the lifestyle’s better, the days are more fun. Change can be painful, especially if you’re a control freak, so it’s something you have to commit to. Commit to being lazy!

I like to integrate this idea into my personal life, as well. For instance, I am somewhat messy, however I like to live in a place that’s clean. So I have a maid. You would be surprised how cost-effective it is to pay someone to clean your place an hour or two a week. Also, the maid cleans much better and faster than I would. Now, I could try and justify this by saying, I use the extra hour or two a week to work, and my effective hourly wage is higher than what I pay the maid, so the ROI is positive. In reality, this may simply be another hour or two of Desktop Tower Defense. It’s a win either way. My goal next year is a personal assistant slash secretary (maybe just part time… maybe not). Other parts of the Manifesto are still on my to-do list. I haven’t moved to a tropical island yet, but I’m moving to Texas next month (Houston–near the Gulf Coast and Mexico, at least), so that’s a start. I also do not have a mistress yet. That sounds like a lot of work.

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