Oh boy, that’s definitely a gray hair.

I woke up this morning and looked in the mirror to tell myself happy new years. And sure enough, there he was. Timmy. My first gray hair. Naturally I had to write about him. Turns out Timmy is quite the philosopher.

It took 28 years to understand time. I’ve only just begun scratching the surface. While i’ll spare you with the details of my childhood and college memories, these next few words may unravel a new perspective on the importance of spending your time wisely.

You see, there are moments in our life when we wake up and…

We can drive a car…

Graduate high school…

Find ourselves trembling behind the desk of our first job interview…

Notice a few grey hairs… (guilty 😱)

Realize our hips just aren’t as hip as they use to be…

It becomes a common phenomena that time flies. However, that is not the moral behind these few words. Time does fly and will only go by faster as our perception of it gets larger.

This year I was able to look at time from the perspective of two people willing to spend the rest of their lives together 💍. As the Officiant of my cousins wedding I realized that love has nothing to do with levels of emotions or times of intimacy. In turn, it’s a sacrifice of our most valuable resource. Time. To share it with someone else.

Since the wedding I’ve started looking at time as a resource that grows in value in accordance to how I spend it and whom I spend it with. I Began questions my goals in both life and business. Understanding what types of relationships are going to solidify the objectives and lifestyle desired.

In 2017, I had the pleasure of working with over 1500 startup companies. I’ve seen it all. The good, bad and the ugly. The bad and the ugly are all over the place and is an appropriate topic for another article. While the good is what I like to study. This year the most exciting startups were in the following spaces: AI |Crypto | BioTech |HealthTech | B2B Software Solution|Construction

The growth in all of these sectors has been fascinating to watch and be apart of. But, merely entering a sexy market is not what makes a startup “good.” And jumping to market under the lean startup principles isn’t exactly healthy either. The most successful startups I’ve worked with this year all share the same underlying denominator. They are assassins of time. The clock of failure is ticking amongst them and they are doing everything to stay organized and find ways to save time in order to succeed. Not only are they working hard they are working strategically. Calculating effectiveness and monitoring every second that makes them more efficient. My favorite example this year is Craig Carl, CEO of Smart CSM. Get out of his way because this man is not messing around. He literally brings a taser gun to his pitches to makes sure the investors are paying attention and no one is wasting his time… I guess it works. Craig has raised over 1.5 million dollars last year for his electrical mapping mapping company. The taser was more than just a shocking effect.

Whether it’s in life or in business time is our most valuable resource, which is why the moral here is to spend it wisely.

Because one day you’ll wake up, and Timmy will be wondering what you’ve been doing all this time. Make sure you can tell him you’re doing what you love.

Gather all your notes, giggle at all the dumb things you did, fun you had, brush off the mistakes and most importantly raise a glass to all the friends, family and colleagues that you get to spend your time with.

To all the friends I’ve laughed with, family I’ve grown with, all the startups I’ve had the pleasure of working with, Expert DOJO, and the BOTCOPY team for trusting my vision. Thank you. You’ve made every bit of this past year worthwhile and are the reason I wake up loving what I do.

If you aren’t doing what you love, you’re wasting your time.

Here are a few tips I’ve picked up to help you save time:

1. Poor organization limits our creative ability. Spend an hour everyday organizing your workflow and processes. Watch how less time spent searching for files, contacts, or thousands of web tabs will contribute to creative ideas and more time doing things you love. Here is what we use at BOTCOPY to stay organized:
   SLACK: Team | Client communication.
   TRELLO: Project Management.
   REALTIMEBOARD: Remote workflow and collaboration. Just amazing.
   GSUITE: Email.
   GOOGLE DRIVE: Company notes, presentations, proposals, spreadsheets, server logic. *Make sure to keep company files organized. Rule of thumb: you should be able to get any document within 30 seconds.
   UBERCONFERENCE: Client conference calls.
   Messenger|SLACK|MEET: Team video calls.
2. If you hate Mondays you’re not doing something you love. Weigh your risks accordingly but don’t shy away from chasing something you are truly passionate about. Don’t be threatened by the judgment of others for chasing and giving all you got to live a life you love. 97% of those who quit chasing their dreams now work for the 3% who never gave up. We spend majority of our lives at work. Granted this is just my strong personal opinion: If you are not doing something you enjoy doing for a living, quit. Go do something that is equality as comforting but 100 x more satisfying. It will be healthier and more impactful.
3. Stick to your schedule and set reminders. Respect not only your time but the time of others. You want to show good character? Start by showing up on time. Siri is a great assistant for helping setting these reminders.
4. Weigh your values. Sometimes it’s okay to be selfish. Respectful, but selfish. It’s a grey area for some, but self-consciously I like to weigh every conversation and relationship on a scale from 1–10. From no value added to my life to we should probably spend every minute with each other. It might seem obscure or rude, however if we spend more times with 6’s and above we will be happier and more productive. Give it a try. What’s a conversation of value to you? What is not? The next part is relativity straight forward. Avoid long conversations that don’t bring you any value. Truth is you probably are not bringing any value to those relationship or conversation either.
5. Gratitude. Someone has sacrificed their time to be with you as well. Don’t forget that. Be grateful, and the time spent together will be more enjoyable.
6. Take care of your body and your mind. Cliche. Effective. Personally, I work in sprints. Everyone is different. Nonetheless, stretching, fresh air, a good sweat does your body wonders. No matter how savory your computer skills, your body is your strongest tools. Take care of it. A fresh body and mind will increase your productivity.
7. Discover your strengths: Everyone has unique and enduring talents. Find out what they are and allow your greatest room for growth to be within these strengths. Find positions that contribute to these strengths opposed to those that encourage you to be all things. You’ll have greater a greater impact and be able to accomplish more within the same time. Play off your strengths.
8. Build a bot for your business. Yes. It’s a shameless plug, as I build bot’s for business with the BOTCOPY team. However, Bots work 24/7 and follow an optimized protocol that compressed goals into a smooth and frictionless delivery. You don’t have to spend hours figuring out if your lead is a match. The bot does that for you. And the data you collect will save you gobs of time later on, because you’ll know your customer really well. To read more about to bot or not check out another article HERE.

And that’s all I got to say about that. Happy New Year.

Until next time,

Dust