Mike Michalowicz explains that trying to control everything leads to micromanagement and actually reduces your control. Focus on what you can influence directly, like your habits and effort, and delegate the rest to people with expertise in those areas.
Hi, it's Mike Michalowicz here, author of Profit First. And today's tip is about control. Is being controlling controlling? You think about it, the more of the minutia we dig into, the more we want to control, the harder it gets. Your health, your relationships, your friends, your job, your business. All these things we want to control. As we try to assert more and more control over it, there's more and more minutiae, more and more details. It becomes harder to control. And if you want to control your health, yeah, you can work out, you can exercise, and you should, you can influence it, but you can't prevent a lightning bolt from hitting you. If you want to grow your business, absolutely. Got to work hard and smart. But there's certain external factors that we have no control over. And one of the dangers of being in control is we try to control things that we're not great at. If you're not great at the finances, why aren't you assigning that to someone else? If you're not great at the marketing, why aren't you bringing on someone that's great at marketing? Being controlling gets us involved in every single detail. It's the ultimate definition of a micromanager. So, yes, you want to be in control. I get it. But being in control of everything is actually failing. You look at it from a new perspective, control the things that you're great at, and actually have direct influence over outside influencers, like that lightning bolt that you can't control. You just got to let it be as it is. You have no control, and therefore you need to release it. And finally, the things that you're trying to control but you're not good at have the courage to outsource it, to hire someone, to bring someone on, to contract someone, to give it to, someone who's excellent at what you're not great at. The ultimate in being control is releasing and letting be.
