169: Running a Goal-Free Business with Stephen Shapiro
Stephen Shapiro is a quintessential Free Timer. Throughout his 20+ year self-employment tenure, he has run a variety of experiments to optimize for freedom and joy. To name just a few: working one hour a day (for years!), clearing space for 15 weeks of travel and/or vacation each year, and week-long hotel stays for focused work sprints.
We also talk about the “existential meltdown” that led to a business model redesign, and why he doesn’t need or want to build a team right now, beyond an extended network of specialists, and why he’d rather sell 10 copies of his next book to the right readers (potential clients) than 10,000 copies to the masses.
More About Stephen Shapiro: Stephen cultivates innovation by showing leaders and their teams how to approach, tackle and solve their business challenges. He sees what others can’t: opportunities to improve innovation models and the cultures that support them. He is the author of six books, including Goal-Free Living, The Little Book of Big Innovation Ideas, Personality Poker, Best Practices are Stupid, and his latest, Invisible Solutions: 25 Lenses that Reframe and Help Solve Difficult Business Problems.
🌟3 Key Takeaways:
📝Permission: Do less and get more. Each day, imagine you only have one hour you can work. How would you spend that hour?
✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Try working one hour a day for one week. Each day ask yourself, “What’s the one thing I have to do that will have the greatest impact today?” You might end up working more, but if you shoot for that single hour, it will focus your thinking.
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