The Story Exercise

One of the tougher skills as an entrepreneur is what I think of as the “expanding and contracting ball” skill. I’m still working on the name.

You probably had one of these things as a kid:

If not, it’s a ball that can fold down into your palm or expand to a couple feet in diameter.

Entrepreneurs need to be able to do this. To zoom out and see the big story five years down the road, then zoom back in and see how the small, daily tasks connect to that strategy. To identify the amplifiers - the things that might push you down the road towards that big story faster, and the drainers - the tasks that don’t move you meaningfully towards that bigger goal but take lots of time and cognitive space. Artificial progress.

The first part of this is having a clear vision of where you want to be in five years. Most founders think about this in broad strokes - "I'd love to be a growing company," or they think about numbers - "I'd love to have $5mm in ARR." But those are vague visions, and vague visions are hard to follow. It's like if you asked me for directions to a cafe in El Paso and I said "oh, that's out West." Sure... but where?

I referenced this video in the pod this week and I recommend everyone watch the full thing, but, if you haven't got time for that, head to 16:13 where he talks through an exercise on telling your story.

Our founders constantly tell me they have trouble removing themselves from their business. They’re comfortable giving great advice to other founders, but get stuck understanding what their next steps should be. This is usually because you can't articulate where you're going.

This exercise is the first step to perspective. I can't think of a better use of time.

Here’s the video, starting at 16:13 in when he talks about the story.