90/10 or 10/90 Entrepreneur

Last week I was talking with a board member about how to be helpful to an entrepreneur we both know. A few minutes into the conversation, the board member said, “We need to get him from being a 10/90 entrepreneur to a 90/10 entrepreneur.” I had never heard this phrase before, so I asked for clarification. He explained that a 10/90 entrepreneur spends 10 percent of his time on the most important things and 90 percent on the less important things. From his perspective, we needed to help the entrepreneur reorient how he thinks so he could become a 90/10 entrepreneur, spending 90 percent of his time on the most important priorities and only 10 percent on activities that don’t add as much value.

After he said this, it struck me how common this pattern is in the entrepreneurial world. Human nature pushes us to focus on whatever is right in front of us, whether it’s busywork, an annoyance, or something that can be handled immediately. For entrepreneurs, a real shift in mindset has to take place. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it.

When I was in college, our economics textbook used a popular example to explain competitive advantage versus comparative advantage. At the time, Michael Jordan was the most famous athlete in the world, and the example suggested that he might be the best and fastest lawn mower on the planet. Even if that were true, mowing lawns would not be where his greatest value lies. His value is in playing basketball, so that’s where he should spend his time. The same principle applies to entrepreneurs.

Of course, in the early years most entrepreneurs don’t have this luxury. There is a period when you have to do whatever it takes to keep the lights on, including the most basic and mundane tasks. I personally spent years doing exactly that. Once we reached some modest scale, it required a huge rewiring for me to delegate responsibilities and find great people who were better at many of those tasks so I could focus on where I could contribute the most.

Entrepreneurs would do well to think intentionally about the journey from 10/90 to 90/10 and to develop the discipline and prioritization needed to spend the majority of their time on the areas where they are most uniquely skilled and suited. The path from 10/90 to 90/10 is often bumpy, but the entrepreneurs who grow and develop faster than their startups ultimately achieve the greatest success.