I’ve learned to focus on what I’m doing, essentially, and become a big fan of procrastination. Put things off a while. Sometimes they resolve themselves (a follow-up e-mail says to ignore the original one, or staffers solve their need another way). Often the outstanding issue just somehow vaporizes all on its own, and no one notices or cares. Delay is a wonderful thing.

The Third D: ‘Delegate’
Even though I’m a big fan of procrastination (when it comes to workload, that is, not investment contributions!) some tasks must be done immediately. Delay is not acceptable.

But just because something has to be done right now doesn’t mean it has to be done by you.

I’ve learned, sometimes painfully, that most of the things that need to get done are best handled by others.

If you find yourself saying, “There’s no one else who can do this,” well, that’s simply your cue to hire someone who can.

That’s how my firm came to have 500 employees. My wife and I certainly didn’t start out thinking we’d hire anyone, let alone hundreds of people. But we soon made three discoveries: There was more work than the two of us could handle; much of the work could be done as well by another person; and our doing the work was preventing us from seeing more clients, thus limiting our ability to grow.

After all, all the aspects of our firm are identical to yours. We have to secure office space and furniture (which is facilities management); buy and maintain computers and telephones (IT); hire, train and supervise staff and set payroll and personnel policies for them (HR); place trades and track client activities (operations); find new clients (marketing); pay the bills (accounting/finance); and obey the rules (compliance).

The only difference between you and me is that you probably perform all these functions yourself. In my firm, these jobs are handled by others, freeing me to do the things that only I can do.