135- Entrepreneurs can deal with the tyranny of the ADEQUATE

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In this episode of The Struggling Biz, we discuss a theme that was brought up by Todd Henry in his podcast show, The Daily Creative — and it was in the mini-episode is called “Don’t fall prey to the tyanny of the adequate.” Now, this may seem very similar to the other idea espoused in Todd Henry’s book The Accidental Creative, which was “the tyranny of the URGENT.”

If we try to differentiate each “urgency” mentioned, we can think about time management and personal productivity themes espoused by such authors as Steven Covey in his book called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

In this famous classic, Steven gives us the time management matrix, which is a page that has four quadrants that give you the view of urgency and importance. And, of course, anything that is in the stressful quadrant where the situation demands urgency (i.e., MUST be done asap) as well as important (i.e., critical to your success and needs to have a high priority). And this is the quadrant that you should try to avoid. Of course, the other quadrants should be avoided, because they are time-wasters.

However, the best quadrant for productivity is that which has importance with less urgency. This is where you can plan, prepare and save important time for reviewing your status and making your time productive instead of stressful (i.e., when you are a “crisis manager” all the time and never get out of that mode).

Thus, as an entrepreneur, you should always avoid managing by crises, because you will never get out of the mode of drowning by your critical and urgent activities, which then become your tyrant. You will have little or no time for dealing with planning for the future or focusing on the activities that Dr. Covey mentions in the quadrant that will help you in productivity and minimal-crisis management.

Now, to differentiate, we turn to Todd Henry, podcaster for the shows of The Accidental Creative and The Daily Creative.me.

Todd is a famous podcaster since 2005, and I have followed him and his shows. I have also read some of his 5 books (including Die Empty). I do believe in the hints and tips that Todd mentions to enhance the success for entrepreneurs and those who are creative.

So, in this instance, the approach by Todd is not a quadrant-based paradigm, but he states that “adequacy” could lead to being stagnant or even start to drop into the road to failure because of the trap to have mediocrity instead of excellence. What Todd describes as “adequate” tyranny entails the following:

“That’s close enough.”
“Seems reasonable.”
“That will sell-in.”
“It’s the most likely _______.”

Most of us are being tasked with doing more with less, …We equate moving simply through our work with actual progress.

Frankly, this isn’t always the wrong strategy. Sometimes adequate is appropriate. However, not nearly as often as we think. Why do we settle so easily?”

In fact, Todd gives us a possible list of symptoms that you may experience on projects to give you hints when you may be letting yourself as an entrepreneur get overpowered by the “tyranny of the adequate”:

“mind-numbing repetition;
fuzzy boundaries and poor definition;
unnecessary complexity;
Lack of a through-line — i.e., if your tasks lack “connective tissue” to tie them all together.”

Todd give us his summary and recommendation to avoid this type of tyranny in your business or startup as an entrepreneur:

“Don’t fall prey to the tyranny of the adequate. Sure, there are times when it’s wise to settle for the most practical answer, but don’t allow the daily grind to lull you into systemic mediocrity. “

Thus, we hope that you will avoid being subjected to both the tyranny of the urgent and the tyranny of the adequate. And in that case, you can be on the road to making your business a success.

Thank you for your attention.