For the first few years of building my business, I wore exhaustion like a badge of honor.
I was the CEO, marketing department, accountant, and grunt worker—all while holding down a regular job and somehow trying to make it to the gym.
I thought that was what being a real entrepreneur looked like.
Turns out, I was just being stubborn.
And that stubbornness cost me years.
I Thought I Had to Do Everything Myself
My biggest flaw as an entrepreneur has always been my instinct to do everything myself.
UNCLE BLAYDE, INC. was mine. I had the idea. I had the vision. So naturally, I thought I should be the one doing everything.
The problem?
I didn’t have the time, energy, or expertise to do everything well.
My attention was divided between so many responsibilities that everything suffered. The marketing was mediocre. The output was mediocre. And, surprise surprise, the results were mediocre too.
I hadn’t built a business. I’d built myself an exhausting job.
Eventually, I hit a wall.
After years of grinding without making the progress I wanted, I had to admit that doing more of what wasn’t working probably wasn’t going to make it work.
So I got help.
And that’s when things started moving.
I Was the Bottleneck
For me, one of the biggest changes came from getting help with marketing copy.
I knew my product. I knew my audience. But writing sales copy could eat up an enormous amount of my time.
So why the hell was I insisting on doing it myself?
Once I started getting help, I had more time to focus on the parts of the business that actually needed me.
And that made me realize:
I had been bottlenecking my own business.
I thought doing everything myself proved how committed I was.
It didn’t.
It meant everything had to wait for me.
Once I stopped insisting on personally holding every piece together, my focus improved, the quality improved, and the business started moving faster.
I could even go to the gym, read a book, or park my ass on the couch and watch The Lord of the Rings for the millionth time without feeling like the company was going to collapse.
That’s not laziness.
That’s a better business.
Figure Out What Actually Needs You
I’m not telling you to hand your company over to somebody else.
I’m saying you should ask yourself:
What am I doing that doesn’t specifically require me to do it?
Maybe it’s copywriting. Graphic design. Bookkeeping. Administrative work. Website maintenance. Editing.
If somebody else can do something better or fast enough that paying them frees you to do more valuable work, why wouldn’t you consider it?
You don’t need twenty employees.
Start with one thing.
Find the task that repeatedly eats your time or keeps you from doing work that matters more.
Then get some help.
You might discover that what looked like an expense was actually buying back your most valuable resource:
Your time.
You Don’t Get Extra Points for Doing It the Hard Way
This is what took me way too long to understand.
There’s a difference between being resourceful and refusing to let anybody help you.
Doing everything yourself isn’t automatically evidence of a strong work ethic.
Sometimes you’re just being stubborn.
Your job as an entrepreneur isn’t to personally do every job in the company.
Your job is to make sure every important job gets done well.
Some of those jobs should absolutely remain yours.
Others shouldn’t.
The trick is knowing the difference.
I wasted years trying to prove I could do everything myself.
Nobody was giving me extra points for that.
The market sure as hell wasn’t.
The goal isn’t to prove you can do everything.
The goal is to build something that works.
Don’t let your pride confuse the two.
Your man,
Uncle Blayde