*Prioritizing*

If you could replay your life and follow the quickest route to where you are today, you’d see what an absurd amount of time was wasted on unimportant matters. Don't be too hard on yourself—many things only become clear in retrospect. Nevertheless, you can learn to recognize when you're focusing on the wrong priorities.

Why does it matter?

As an entrepreneur, you operate with finite resources: time, money, and energy. While countless aspects of your business will demand attention, it's critical to distinguish between what feels important and what truly drives results. Vanity metrics—like website traffic or social media followers—can create an illusion of progress without contributing to your bottom line. Instead, focus on metrics that directly impact your business success, such as conversion rates, customer lifetime value, or profit margins.

Food for thought
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Everything you did this week was influenced by vanity to some extent. Your goal should be to ensure that this vanity does not distract you from your true objectives. If you take pride in the number of hours you worked yesterday or the likes your tweet received, reflect on whether these metrics are truly worth your pride. Vanity not only makes you appear inauthentic to capable individuals, but it also consumes a significant amount of your time.

How to apply it?

Before investing significant resources into any initiative, ask yourself these three critical questions:

• Am I chasing an outcome?
  • Focus on the ultimate goal, not the intermediate steps.
  • Example #1: instead of celebrating 1000 app downloads, focus on the number of active daily users who get value from your product or better yet, your conversion from downloads to paying customers.
  • Example #2: rather than tracking hours spent coding, measure how many user problems your features actually solve.
• Am I signalling an ability?
  • Prioritize achievements that demonstrate real value and are difficult to fake.
  • Example #1: instead of touting your previous role at a large company, showcase how you've helped clients increase their revenue by 300%.
  • Example #2: rather than focusing on your social media follower count, highlight how your work impacts your customers' lives.
• Am I signaling a virtue?
  • Invest in actions with lasting impact rather than quick wins for social validation.
  • Example #1: instead of pointing a finger at an injured kid in the playground for others to see - help him back to his feet.
  • Example #2: instead of creating snarky LinkedIn posts, commit to developing solutions that address the root cause and involve yourself in the process.

Let's take a closer look at these three points.

Am I chasing an outcome?

Whatever you prioritize, begin by defining your ultimate goal. Whether it's creating a profitable business, developing a product, or expanding your customer base, clarity is essential. Once defined, work backwards:

1. Draw a simple line
2. Place your ultimate goal at the end
3. Map the necessary steps backward from there

Be wary of vanity metrics! These metrics typically appear early in the process, as initial actions like website visits and email sign-ups are distant from the final objective. Over-optimizing these initial steps can lead to diminishing returns, especially if, for example, few people continue to subscribe, read, or engage with the content afterwards. However, you may need to focus on an early step if it creates a bottleneck that stops you from moving on to the next step.

Food for thought
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Time and resources are the tools we use to make progress. Therefore, they are always at the start of any journey. This has a significant implication: time and resources can often be misleading indicators of success. Anyone can waste money on a problem. Life isn't just about “putting in the hours.” It’s about achieving results and appreciating the journey.

Am I signalling an ability?

Sometimes, our goal isn’t to create or change things, but to showcase our skills. Many entrepreneurs prioritize obtaining impressive credentials over developing real abilities. While these credentials can be beneficial, they often serve more as vanity indicators than true measures of skill. The best way to show skill is through a steady record of delivering valuable results.

How to distinguish between meaningful and meaningless signals of ability?

Easy-to-game signals—like social media followers, awards, or titles—can be lobbied for or purchased, making them poor indicators of true ability. Hard-to-game signals, such as customer satisfaction, revenue growth, or documented impact, require genuine skill. Anyone can buy followers, but no one can fake consistent business performance or real customer value. Focus on achievements that are difficult to manipulate and tied to real results.

Easy to Game (avoid over-emphasizing):

• X Awards and titles
• X Academic credentials
• X Social media follower counts
• X Press mentions
• X Industry rankings

Hard to Game (focus here):

• V Customer satisfaction metrics
• V Revenue figures
• V Measurable client outcomes
• V Market share

Before highlighting an achievement, ask yourself these questions:

• Does this reflect actual value creation?
• Can this be independently verified?
• Would experienced professionals be impressed?
• Does it demonstrate real-world impact?

Am I signalling a virtue?

Sometimes, our goal is to show how much we truly care about something. The extent of our care is reflected in the actual impact we make, not just in our words. It's about creating a significant and lasting difference through hard work and commitment of resources.

The difference between focusing on signaling a virtue versus signaling an ability lies in the level of effort. You can differentiate actions based on the amount of effort they require, identifying those that demand low effort compared to those that require high effort.

Low-Effort Actions (Avoid):

• X Posting about company values
• X Criticizing industry problems
• X Making public statements
• X Sharing trending hashtags

High-Effort Actions (Pursue):

• V Implementing systematic changes
• V Investing resources in solutions
• V Building long-term programs
• V Creating measurable impact

Before making any virtue-based business decision, ask:

• Am I solving the real problem?
• Does this create lasting change?
• Have I invested meaningful resources?
• Can I measure the impact?

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