Chapter 328 - Strategic Laziness As A Leverage Point[5] (2/2)

It wasn't until I met my wife (who had a steady 9-5) that she put her (high-heeled) foot down and was like, ”Hey f.u.c.knuts, put the laptop away and spend some time with me at the beach.”

I, of course, was horrified. It was like asking someone to leave the house without their right arm.

”But what about my emails?” I stammered.

I spent that first night in a fetal position, shaking. I had dreams where my website was hacked and my identity stolen and there was nothing I could do. I imagined the web servers spontaneously bursting into flames at the same time my bank accounts were being drained.

None of that happened, of course.

In fact, what happened was the complete opposite. Sitting there on that beach for five days, with no phone, no computer, no electronics – just me and a wonderful woman and my thoughts, I began to see my own work more clearly than I had ever seen it before. It was as if I had spent five years huddling over my business, scrutinizing and obsessing over every part and detail, and then hopping into a hot air balloon, and gliding so high above that I could see the whole thing with more perspective than I ever had before.

And it was on that beach that I came up with two ideas that would change my life.

The first was changing this website to markmanson.net (BRANDING!!! LEVERAGE POINTS!!!). Within six months, traffic increased 5-fold and my income 3-fold. The site would soon be read by millions of people, shared in over 100 countries, and get me published in some of the most prestigious publications around the world. And this would all happen while doing fewer hours of work than I had been doing before.

Whereas I had spent years trying to grow my website through sheer willpower and time commitment, it was by letting go of what was not working that my business took off without even needing me in it half the time.

The other idea I had on that beach was my book.