How Much Is Your Stubbornness Worth?
An attorney bills $800 per hour but has just spent two hours wrestling with a printer installation that should have taken 20 minutes.
You do the math.
The printer fought back at every step: wrong drivers, connectivity issues, and error messages that made no sense. Most people would have called IT support after the first 30 minutes.
But this attorney saw a challenge to conquer, a problem to solve. After two frustrating hours of troubleshooting, rebooting, and researching online forums, victory was finally achieved.
The printer worked. The attorney felt accomplished. They had won.
But here’s what really happened: they just spent $1,600 of labor on a task that should have cost a fraction of that expense.
Most successful business owners make similar expensive choices every day.
You’re capable of learning dozens of tasks. Your intelligence and persistence serve you well.
But you’re slowly drowning in activities that keep you from your greatest skills, the work where you’re most needed.
Gay Hendricks, who wrote “The Big Leap,” says we operate in four distinct zones. Most entrepreneurs get stuck fighting battles in zones where they don’t belong.
Zone One: Incompetence Tasks you’re terrible at. Everyone knows to avoid these, except when stubbornness kicks in.
Zone Two: Competence Tasks you can do, but so can lots of other people.
Zone Three: Excellence Tasks you’re genuinely great at. This is the trap. You excel here, people appreciate your work, and you feel valuable. But excellence in the wrong areas is incompetence where it counts.
Zone Four: Genius The sweet spot. Your natural talents, passions, and strengths intersect. This work energizes you. Only you can do it the way you do it.
The problem? Most business owners spend 80% of their time in zones one through three.
Getting to Your Zone of Genius: Five Essential Steps
- Track Your Energy, Not Just Your Time
For one week, note how you feel after each task. Energized or drained? Excited or bored? Zone of genius activities have a distinct signature. Time flies when you’re doing them. You lose track of hours because you’re fully engaged. The work challenges you without overwhelming you, and you feel like you’re making a unique contribution.
- Ask the Million-Dollar Question
What would happen if you stopped doing this task entirely? If the answer is “someone else could handle it just as well,” you’ve found zone-three work to delegate. If the answer is “someone else could handle it better and faster,” you’ve found zone-one or zone-two work to eliminate immediately.
- Calculate Your Opportunity Cost
Every hour you spend on tasks others can do is an hour stolen from tasks only you can do. If you’re worth $200 per hour strategically, but you’re spending time wrestling with a $25-per-hour technical problem, you’re losing $175 every hour, plus the frustration cost to your mental energy.
- Identify Your Unique Contribution
What do you do that creates the most value for your business? Usually, this involves relationship building, strategic thinking, or creative problem-solving. These activities can’t be easily replicated or delegated.
- Create Systems for Everything Else
Document processes and build checklists. Train others and make yourself replaceable in zones one through three so you can become irreplaceable in zone four.
The magic happens when you realize you don’t have to conquer every challenge yourself. Being determined doesn’t mean being efficient.
That $800-per-hour attorney? A simple call to IT support would have solved the printer problem in 20 minutes for $50. Instead, pride and persistence turned a minor technical issue into a major opportunity cost.
The HireSmart Difference
We understand this trap because we’ve lived it. Building HireSmart Virtual Employees taught us that the hardest part involves recognizing when our determination becomes counterproductive and learning to let go of battles we shouldn’t be fighting.
Our virtual employees don’t just complete tasks. They take ownership of entire workflows, allowing business owners to operate from their zone of genius.
We spend 40 hours training each virtual employee before they start with you. We focus on skills and on understanding that their efficiency should complement your genius.
“Mia is a pleasant, adaptable, and eager team member who consistently ensures that all tasks are completed accurately and on time,” said one client about their VE. “She is always enthusiastic about learning and ready to assist wherever needed. Her flexibility was particularly evident during our recent acquisition, where she quickly embraced new processes and responsibilities. Additionally, Mia is a strong problem solver and a joy to work with.”
“Nikki has been a gift to me that I never would have imagined existed,” said another client about their VE. “Her work product is almost always flawless and she is always striving to move us to the next goal with client support.”
Most business owners know they should delegate more. They understand the math. They see the logic. But they keep fighting battles they don’t need to win because winning feels productive.
Winning the wrong battles becomes losing the war. Conquering technical challenges becomes avoiding strategic opportunities.
The business owners who break free from this trap rediscover why they started their businesses in the first place. They remember what energizes them, and they focus on work that only they can do.
Think about what drew you to entrepreneurship initially. You didn’t start your business because you loved troubleshooting printers or wrestling with software. You had a vision. You saw an opportunity to solve problems in a unique way.
That vision lives in your zone of genius. But you can’t access it when you’re buried in tasks others can handle for you.
Ready to make the shift? Click here to schedule a free consultation about how a HireSmart Virtual Employee can handle your time-consuming tasks, so you can focus on your zone of genius.
To read more, see: