The Airplane Rule

"In case of a cabin pressure emergency, put on your own mask first before assisting others."

Most business founders and owners are busy. It's just a fact. But just because you are busy, doesn't mean you have to neglect personal needs in favor of your business's. We see it time and again, where business owners work harder on their businesses at the cost of neglecting themselves - physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. And it works - for a time.

As we wrote in our thoughts on maintaining margin in life, usually the effects of an over-committed schedule or over-leveraged balance sheet only show up during the tough times. The same holds true for neglecting personal needs. Burnout occurs slowly, then all at once. We like to call it the airplane rule:

Neglecting to put on your oxygen mask in turbulence won't kill you instantly, but after a few minutes, you will be neither effective for yourself or others around you. And so it goes in business. You must build the best version of yourself before you can build your business. 

Here are a few practical ways to implement the airplane rule for busy owners.

Carve out the time to reflect. Bill Gates is famous for taking his 'think weeks' where he escapes all business functions to read, think, and reflect on both past and future.  It is worth exploring whether your business would operate in a seamless manner without you for a week to reflect and strategize future direction. If not, it may be time to ask why. 

Get back to the 'Why'. Being busy creates an aura of progress. But with the lack of margin comes a lack of vision. Time horizons shrink to match deadlines. And when time horizons shrink, sometimes the 'why' behind the efforts can be lost. Why did you originally start or buy the business? Why did you come to work for the business in the first place? If you have no 'why', your 'what' won't matter.

Focus on the pain points. As the Anna Karenina principle states, 'all happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' The same is true of every business owner - all joyful owners are alike, but every unhappy owner is unhappy in her own way. It is worth reflecting on how to eliminate the root causes of your struggles as an owner. They will be different for each owner, but the more stress you can remove from your plate, the more freedom you will have to reflect on your decisions and focus on your 'why'. This is, in essence, the virtuous cycle of the airplane rule. Focus on yourself first to build a better business. 

Amazon met with startups about investing, then launched competing products (Wall Street Journal)

+ "Dealing with Amazon is often a double-edged sword for entrepreneurs. Amazon’s size and presence in many industries, including cloud-computing, electronic devices and logistics, can make it beneficial to work with. But revealing too much information could expose companies to competitive risks.“They are using market forces in a really Machiavellian way,” said Jeremy Levine, a partner at venture-capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners. “It’s like they are not in any way, shape or form the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing. They are a wolf in wolf’s clothing.”"

339 Startup failures post-mortem (CB Insights)

+ A valuable reminder that small business and startups are hard.

Unlucky charms: the rise and fall of billion-dollar jewelry empire Alex and Ani (Marker)

+ "Sources described a once-focused and enthusiastic organization plagued by uncertainty and a visionary creative leader who seemed ill-suited to running a massive retail brand. According to those who worked with Rafaelian, the same improvisational, shoot-from-the-hip approach to business that helped make Alex and Ani such a spectacular success also contributed to its undoing."

Which colleges will survive the pandemic? (Scott Galloway)

+ "The ugly truth is many college presidents believe they have no choice. College is an expensive operation with a relatively inflexible cost structure. Tenure and union contracts render the largest cost (faculty and administrator salaries) near-immovable objects. The average salary of a full professor (before benefits and admin support costs) is $104,820, though some make much more, and roughly 50% of full-time faculty have tenure. While some universities enjoy revenue streams from technology transfer, hospitals, returns on multibillion-dollar endowments, and public funding, the bulk of colleges have become tuition dependent. If students don’t return in the fall, many colleges will have to take drastic action that could have serious long-term impacts on their ability to fulfill their missions.

Leading advertisers 2020 fact pack (AdAge)

+ "The advertising economy in 2019 reached a record high in the US (media ad revenue $239 billion excluding political ads, up 6.8%) and the world (media revenue of $587 billion, up 6.2%) according to WPP's GroupM."

How to take personal development off the backburner (First Round Review)

+ "A theme we’ve noticed in our last several pieces here on the Review is that it’s important to push back against these feelings by setting aside the time for critical reflection. Whether it’s an introduction to the concept of emotional fitness, a guide for managers leading their employees through a crisis, or our most recent article on building a vulnerable culture where you can truly be yourself at work, we’ve found time and time again the importance of tapping into that inner voice of strength and resilience. That work hinges on a resolve to deeply introspect about where you’ve been, where you’re headed and how you can seek self-improvement, even in the midst of stormy weather."

The technology that changed air travel (Retool)

+ "A lot has changed about air travel since it went mainstream in the 1930s. On-board smoking, free-flowing booze, and five-star meals have given way to baggage fees, cramped seats, and mystery meat. It ain’t all bad, though — flying is also more safe, affordable and accessible than ever before. Through all this change, one thing has stayed the same — the software that manages it all."

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