What I’m thinking about: The price and pain of staying focused…the single biggest determinant of business (and life) success.
I could write about this every single week (e.g. ‘Top 2 Business Killers From Land UnConference’).
Heck, I even wrote an article called ‘The Game of Focus’ back in 2020 during one of my earlier forays as a writer. But the battle keeps evolving…and lately I had been losing ground (leading to another breakthrough, as I’ll get to below.)
Social research shows that people generally fall somewhere on a spectrum between dopamine-driven and serotonin-driven personalities. (I’m not sure who first articulated this framework, maybe you can help me find the source, but it’s stuck with me for years.)
Dopamine-driven people are reward-seeking, impulsive, prone to novelty and boredom. They’re energetic, curious, mentally flexible…but also more vulnerable to addiction. Higher risk of substance abuse, ADHD tendencies, and relentless pursuit of the next hit. The upside? Intensity. Experimentation. The ability to hyperfocus when something captures them.
Serotonin-driven people are more stable, conscientious, and risk-averse. They follow rules, prize order, and build sustainable habits more easily. They’re less prone to addiction but may struggle with rigidity or avoiding necessary risks.
These aren’t mutually exclusive, obviously. Most people sit somewhere within each extreme on the spectrum.
But understanding where you land (on an average day) matters so that you can be aware of the ups and downs inherent to each trait…particularly as they relate to interpersonal relationships, like spouses or business partners.
For example, my wife and I are both primarily dopamine-driven. Besides the benefits mentioned above, on the downside, we have addictive personality traits that can spiral out of control…especially when one of us uses the other’s lapse as an excuse to fuel our own descent into poor habits.
Utilize this framework to reflect on your own core relationships.
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Personally, I’ve had an addiction to video games for most of my life. Played too many when I was younger, and this was during an era with less research into negative effects and nonexistent parental controls.
During several relapses as an adult, I convinced myself that I could just play for a half-hour after a long day to decompress.
That 30 min inevitably turned into one hour…then two…then three. Going to bed late, brain crowded with the need for “a closed loop”, playing far past any remaining enjoyment just to finish the game for completion’s sake.
(This is in contrast to my highly financially successful business partner, who’s more serotonin-driven and can cap his video game playing at a reasonable mark without issue.)
I’ve had to come up with alternate strategies. Since I mainly played video games for the narrative, whenever there’s a game update, I’ll just watch somebody play through it on YouTube, or check out a summary. Far less addictive than playing myself, and it spoils the story…releasing the pressure valve of me desiring to play through it.
As of this writing, I haven’t played any video games in over two years.
…But still, almost every weekend, there’s inevitably a thought: “Well, maybe I can just start playing through [X] game..“
I’m reminded of something Andrew Huberman shared on his podcast with Dr. Anna Lembke about addiction. A friend who’s 40 years sober told him: “No matter how far you drive, you’re always the same distance from the ditch.”
Deep addictions never truly go away. They always require conscious choice to stay on the path you’ve chosen for yourself.
A lot of people would look at my outward conscientiousness and discipline as something inherent to my personality. But that’s just because I have to overcompensate so hard to overcome my tendency toward distraction and addiction.
Right now, in this season of life, I rotate my waking hours between:
- Working
- Nurturing relationships with family and friends
- Physical activity
- Reading
All tackled in a fairly militaristic regimen…that’s what’s working for me.
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More recently, as my team and I have been working through particularly complex business problems, I’ve found myself getting lured into typical (for most humans with an internet connection) procrastination pathways…
Checking my personal email…
Opening ESPN or CNN tabs for quick hits of headline stories that won’t stay in my memory for even 5-10 minutes…
My heart would start racing and I’d inevitably feel more stress and overwhelm about my frazzled brain and lack of commitment to solve the hairiest problem in front of me.
Over the last week, I made a commitment: I give myself the opportunity to check a few websites on my personal browser in the morning, but then it gets fully closed out…and I can’t check anything until after dinner.
During my main workday, if I’m not doing the work in front of me, the only alternative is to sit and stare at a wall…
Knowing that even if I sat and stared at a wall the entire day…that would still be a win compared to jumping back into digital distractions.
Almost immediately, my work output and overall sense of fulfillment improved (even tackling hairy problems is more enjoyable than staring at a wall.)
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As an aside, a few nights ago, I had a dream sitting across a kitchen counter from my friend Dave Denniston. Dave was grilling me on our land funding criteria, and I was breaking down our underwriting tactics…accurately, I might add, upon reflection when I awoke, haha.
When I’m dreaming about solving work problems and refining my pitch, that’s when I know I’m locked in.
I’ll never forget the story from a keynote by Manny Villafaña, the founder of St. Jude Medical, where his team was under the gun to solve a critical engineering problem for an artificial heart valve. One of his lead engineers cracked the code for the right design (still in use today) within a dream…which eventually contributed to a $25B exit.
Bottom line: Don’t discount the potential of your dream state.
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Rewarding my recent upgraded sense of focus, we made significant progress on Land Pricer AI. The last six months have paid off:
^ Internal team member message upon testing Land Pricer.
Serious Land Capital is the initial customer we’re building this for…if we won’t use it, we won’t release it to you.
If both myself, and everybody reading this, maximized our ability to focus on solving the biggest problem (and then the next biggest problem, and so on) in front of us…our collective businesses and lives would inevitably reach the next level.
Focus is an ongoing battle that requires different strategies for different personalities. Find yours. Fight for it daily.
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Looking for funding from a team that stays locked in on what matters? Serious Land Capital doesn’t get distracted by shiny objects or market noise. We focus relentlessly on 2X margin deals with bulletproof downside protection. $50K minimum purchase price.
