At my wedding, my best man read a poem which had a very specific joke in it.
And that joke became a common theme throughout the wedding.
And that same joke is texted to me about once a week from some guys at my office.
And my gym.
And from my brother.
Because earlier this year I had to take some time off due to an infection.
Not “end of the world” stuff, but I could barely concentrate, short of breath, and I slept all the time.
It was like a 90 day cold.
And my family repeatedly asked me if I’d have to shut the business down.
“Why on Earth would I need to do that?” I’d ask.
In their eyes, someone who doesn’t work isn’t doing anything.
A business surely can’t operate and run with no one at the helm?
Cleaners need to clean. Carpenters need to carpent.
Mike needs to…wait, what exactly does Mike do again?
And this is all by design.
Some of my nieces and nephews think I’m either a spy.
Or that I’ve made my millions and now just sort of…lounge around the place.
At first, this used to really annoy me, because it implies that our value and identity as people is defined by the work we do for other people.
But a friend of mine said something really interesting to me.
I told him that on average, I probably only work 3-4 hours a day, 4 days a week.
I hardly ever have meetings or calls and if I do, they’re with people I want to talk to.
If anything, we’ve found that the less I’m involved in my own business – the better the business operates.
And my friend said “Mike, it doesn’t matter if no one knows what you do or how your business operates.”
Huh.
And he’s absolutely right.
I can’t show off because there’s nothing to show.
And that’s the point.
I work when I want, if I want.
I write emails like this.
Talk to my team (who are fantastic).
And I spend a lot of time thinking and reading.
The massive caveat to all this of course, is that I have a phenomenal team of hard working, smart, and dedicated people that I listen to.
I also am 100% comfortable with control of the business not being up to me.
There’s lots of things that I have zero say over.
All of this is because I’m 100% focused, however, on what I should be doing.
I have one job at my company.
I don’t have “lots of hats” as lots of entrepreneurs say.
I have one job and I let my team get on with theirs.
And what that means, is that if I take time off – lots of time off – no one really notices.
So the answer to the joke, “What exactly does Mike do?” is…whatever he feels like.
