The Importance of Being Lazy and Ambitious

Epitaph on the Grave of Johnny The Fly

Here lies the body of Johnny the Fly
Who thought it was enough to just try, try and try.

He died stuck behind a closed glass window
Even though he worked hard and made a show.

Banging himself again and again at the hard glass
Until he lay down and let precious life pass.

Not knowing that the open door and fields of May
Was just two feet away!

Hard-work is a two-edged sword. It can help you attain success. But it can also give you a false sense of hope. Let's say that you've been working on a project that has gone over the scheduled launch date. Should you push your team-members to work harder and longer. Or should you take a step back to think about what's causing the delay and if possible cut out a few of the deliverables from the project in order to make it more attainable?

I know of a friend whose start-up company has not been doing too well. Rather than take a step back and re-examine his strategy, competitive positioning and starting premise, this friend is opting to crowd out his evenings and weekends with ... you guessed it "more hard-work!"

The most successful people are those who are ambitious and hard-working in the right direction. These are the go-getters who populate the pages of Business Week and Time magazines. The second most successful set of people are those who are ambitious but lazy. They spend their time thinking about what needs to be done and figuring out the shortest, least-resource-intensive way of doing it. They don't make "to-do lists." They make up "not-to-do" lists. They don't spend their time launching new projects. They spend it cutting out unnecessary projects. The people who follow them also tend to be like them and walk on the path of least resistance. These organizations which are mostly small, very successful businesses (like 37 signals) are usually leaders in their own small niches. I call this set of people as being lazy and ambitious.

It is this second set of people that I personally love to study. They usually reside outside of large corporations and work for smaller companies or run their own businesses or become investors in other companies.

I hope that more people will start adding the line, "Ambitious and Lazy" to their resumes!