What I’m thinking about: The dangerous gap between learning from elite operators and blindly copying their playbooks…without understanding your own business reality.
I’ve been deep-diving into Sharran Srivatsaa’s content recently (2x $1B+ exits in real estate). His operational frameworks are brilliant…and often make me feel uncomfortable.
This is a good thing.
Lessons from top-level operators SHOULD invoke a fear response.
Thoughts like, “I’m not sure I can play at that level,” or…
“That seems too advanced for me,” or…
“Geez, that seems like a TON of work, and I already have a full plate,” or…
“I’m afraid to try that…because I might fail.”
Maybe it’s just me dealing with self-limiting beliefs…but does any of that sound familiar?
Growth requires discomfort. Growth requires stress. Growth requires courage.
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Last week, Sharran advocated for “pre-logging” your end-of-week reports at the beginning of each week.
For example, instead of “planning” to hit five weekly client calls, you block the call slots into your calendar knowing you MUST fill them by Friday.
Whatever fires come up during the week, those commitments are non-negotiable…you’ve already “pre-logged” your progress.
Distractions kill momentum. Emergency tasks crowd out growth activities. Pre-commitment forces execution regardless of inevitable chaos.
This hit home…because of how poorly I’ve managed this principle. (And we’ve built up a sizable business in SPITE of operations that could be dramatically improved for more consistent progress.)
How many other entrepreneurs can relate to this…?
Nevertheless, operational evolution requires judgment…not wholesale copy-pasting (*insert metaphor about today’s AI usage*).
For strategic or tactical improvements, I try to quickly implement and iterate when I learn something valuable (you only learn by doing, right?)
So I brought this “pre-logging” tactic to our Land Pricer AI engineering team last week, where our CTO and senior engineer have been grinding through a massive backlog of tasks.
We’ve been routinely burned by underestimating the timeline it has required to ship a product that meets our standards, and I thought this tactic would help us manage consistent and “programmable” progress. Perfect use case, hmm?
Not quite.
Our CTO, who is far more experienced with software products than me, pushed back immediately:
“Chris, that takes significant management time when we’re a two-person engineering team. If we had five engineers, absolutely. But right now, every hour spent structuring tasks and guessing timelines is an hour not executing or squashing bugs.“
(Reality check that I needed to hear. Engineers tend to be great at those.)
His point was solid: We already have clear priorities, flagged by level of urgency. Boom, boom, boom – knock them out.
The lesson is to adapt the execution of business tactics to your unique business situation (and the specific parts of your operation.)
Even as I write this, I’m realizing that while “pre-logging” isn’t the best fit for our current engineering priorities at Land Pricer…it still makes a ton of sense for our marketing efforts (in other words…you can’t wiggle out of this one, eh, Chris?)
Same for Serious Land Capital, we are a well-oiled machine that could be operating even smoother with “pre-logging” implementation.
The reality is, you MUST keep evolving because the game (and your customers) keeps evolving. Competitors get better tools, education improves, market conditions shift. Standing still means falling behind.
As one of my mentors routinely says, “Emulate, then innovate.” (And try to collapse the timeline to innovation as quickly as you can, that’s where the gold is…or at least the capability to outlast everyone else).
I started writing more on this, but it’s better saved for another article, and I want to drive the core point home…
Which is to maintain the beginner’s mindset while developing expert judgment…and delivering max value to your customers in the way only YOU (and your team) can.
Stay hungry to learn (recall, learning = doing) from elite operators, but develop the confidence to adapt their tactics to your reality.
(And maintain the humility to accept advice from your team that may have a better view on the situation than you do.)
It’s Monday. Who’s ready to “pre-log?” 🙂
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