The Replaceable Founder summary

You start a new project at work. At first everything is going well and everyone is excited. But then something happens and, for whatever reason, the project stalls. Suddenly, everyone is scratching their heads, wondering what happened and what to do next.

When this happens, it's usually a sign that it's not clear enough what needs to be done and who should be doing what.

If you’re a founder and you're constantly overwhelmed with work, it’s usually a sign that you've forgotten an important aspect of great leadership: delegation.

The key to delegating effectively is to make an honest assessment of what kind of tasks you’re not particularly good at or passionate about. These are the things you need to delegate to others. If you’re lousy at accounting, for instance, you should probably hand this task over to someone else.

One of the hallmarks of any great founder or CEO is the quality of the team they put together. That's because building a team of excellent employees is easier said than done.

Luckily, there are steps you can take to increase your chances of hiring great talent. The first is to make sure you pay attention to the special skill sets they bring to the table.

Great. Now you’ve got a well-oiled company in place. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that problems will stop happening. Even worse: All of them seem to require your immediate attention. So how do you handle those day-to-day urgencies?

Truth is: As long as no one’s hacking your company account, most of your problems are not as urgent as you think they are. Even though you feel like it, you don’t have to act on every problem immediately. Acknowledging this reality will ultimately help you work in more productive ways. For example, by blocking off your most productive times for others.

When speaking to audiences around the world, the author regularly asks them: What keeps you from being creative? The most common answer is: My cluttered inbox. So what can you do about it?

The key message here is: Tame your emails with filters and the Do, Delete or Defer rule.

Question: What will keep you ahead of your competitors?

The answer: your unique ideas.

Bill Gates once said, “Content is king.” Even though this was back in 1996, it's equally true today. No matter what business you’re in, great content is crucial to success. After all, it’s the primary way of reaching out to your customers. So, let’s look at how you can up your content game.

The first thing you should do is recognize your limitations.

Even the best content in the world can only take you so far. It’ll wither away unnoticed if you don’t have customers and fans who actively recommend you – and that means building a stable customer base. How do you do that?

The key message here is: You’ll attract customers with smooth points of contact and the right free sample.

One of the author’s clients is Justin Kavanaugh, a world-famous trainer to an impressive roster of professional athletes, including many top American football players.

Throughout his career, Kavanaugh always took on a lot of work, including many high-profile speaking engagements, and always pushed himself to do more. But when his first child was born, all this changed. He had to start saying no. For someone who had never met a challenge he couldn’t accept, this was hard.

Founders are always going to be important players in any company; but that doesn’t mean they have to be involved in all the day-to-day operations of the business. In fact, trying to do everything yourself is a sure way to burn out. At the end of the day, it’s your job to set up an organization that can run smoothly on its own, so that you can spend more time following new ideas and leading the way forward.

Let’s give the last word to the author, Ari Meisel, who we interviewed in 2016. Here he is, talking about delegation and time: