Buy Back Your Time summary

Do you know who Tom Clancy is? If you’re thinking, Prolific spy-thriller author of the Jack Ryan series – ka-ching!

But here’s what you might not know: Clancy didn’t actually write all those novels. Once he established his books as best sellers, he hired ghostwriters to flesh out stories that he’d conceptualized. This left him free to spend his time exploring bigger and better opportunities that would take his franchise to the next level.

Clancy, it seems, knew all about Dan Martell’s concept of buying back time.

If you’re an entrepreneur, it’s likely that you keep a hand in every aspect of your business. You look over your engineer’s code, discuss the books with your accountant, and check and respond to all your emails. But while these actions are necessary to keep your business going, these are not things that you – the owner – personally need to do. In fact, by doing them all, you are stunting your growth.

The business might be your baby, but if you want that baby to grow, you have to hire trusted help. Burning out and working 20-hour days will not only destroy your creativity and productivity – it will harm your family life, your relationships, and your health.

Martell identifies the “Pain Line” at which this occurs. It’s typically when an entrepreneur has about twelve direct reports and is making more than $1 million in revenue. At this point, most entrepreneurs make one of three choices: they either sell their business, sabotage it by careening off in different directions, or stall because they’re scared to grow.

Martell presents a fourth option: the “Buyback Principle,” a method by which you can buy back your time.

Simply put, this is a process that requires you to audit your time to see where and how you allocate it. It involves identifying low-value time sinkholes, transferring these tasks to someone who does them better than you (and who might even enjoy them!), and then filling your time with higher value activities that bring you joy. We’ll explore these steps in more detail in the next few sections. 

But the fundamental key to success lies in how you think about the hiring process. The overarching purpose of hiring someone is not to perform specific tasks for you. It’s to free you up to do what you do best – the big, entrepreneurial, high-value creative things that actually grow your business.