What’s your “Think Week”?

To work in, or on your business, that is the question. 

Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth, popularized that phrasing over 35 years ago.

We can either push through the day-to-day operations or we can zoom out, take a step back, and design a better business to work on in the first place.  

And while his ideas have been exceptionally useful for likely hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs (with over 5 million copies sold!) I’d like to add a third option. 

Not to work in your business. 

Not to work on your business. 

But how about working off your business?

I think what many new entrepreneurs miss is where to place their attention. 

Attention is placed on putting out fires, following growth playbooks, or just handling the existing needs of the businesses.

I don’t want to discount these. But this often misses one thing:

Space. 

Space to be creative. 

Space for new ideas to emerge. And for old ones to fall away.

Space to truly recharge so you can come back to work inspired, motivated and ready to go.

Rick Rubin, one of the most influential music producers of all time, has a wonderful quote about space:

“How do we pick up on a signal that can neither be heard nor be defined? The answer is not to look for it. Nor do we attempt to predict or analyze our way into it. Instead, we create an open space that allows it. A space so free of the normal overpacked conditions of our minds that it functions as a vacuum. Drawing down the ideas that the universe is making available.”

The job of the founder is to take the best ideas possible and bring them into reality. 

And the best ideas aren’t always accessible by doing more. 

Not by working more in the business. Not by working more on it. But by taking a step back and allowing space for emergence. 

Bill Gates famously takes an annual “Think Week” to disconnect and focus on what matters.

Sam Corcos, founder of Levels (a $300M metabolic health company), blocks off 1 week every quarter to think and write.

Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Square, is known for taking extended Vipassana meditation retreats.

And personally, I just spent the weekend disconnecting with a group of local Venice founders.

Spending time off business, not just on it… This is how we spark creativity. This is how the best ideas emerge.

As an exercise this week, try stepping back from your business. Give yourself open space. And then share what comes through.

Cheers,

Oliver

PS. Here’s one more to drive it home:

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax” – Abraham Lincoln.

What’s your Think Week? How do you sharpen your ax?

Feel free to reply and let me know!