Stop Trying To Do Everything Yourself!

The Secret to Exponential Growth

You cannot do everything yourself.

I’m sure this isn’t news to you.

Yet so many get caught up in this trap.

Don’t get me wrong, there will be times when you have to wear a few different hats.

For example, I had to do marketing, sales, accounting, admin, etc. for my freelance business in the beginning.

But there’s a time when you must pass on responsibilities if you want to grow exponentially. I wish I had known earlier.

You don’t have to know, understand, and do everything yourself in your life or business — and you can’t.

Trying to do so is the reason most people aren’t successful.

It’s the reason people get overwhelmed and start procrastinating.

You miss opportunities to learn new things when you try to do everything yourself.

Even worse…

You miss opportunities to become exponentially better through shared minds.

Learn how to automate, delegate, and cut off!

This is the secret all successful entrepreneurs use to get to where they are — hence why I always say, “Nobody is truly self-made.”

As Bill Nye once said, “Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.”

You must tap into this source to become the best version of yourself 10x faster.

Do-everything-yourself syndrome

I’ve been meaning to quit the whole freelance game for ages.

Before I did, I wanted to build a digital product and website for the next endeavor I’d put 100% of myself into.

But there was a problem…

I started building out the website, and then I stopped.

This impacted my motivation to work on the product I was building.

Every week, for around 3 months, I told myself, “I’ll do it this weekend.”

TLDR: I didn’t do it.

Mind you, I was being charged almost $200 per month to keep the website hosted while I was supposed to be working on it.

Instead of doing what would take me to the next level in life, I’d constantly take on new client work that kept me busy and paid, although I was unfulfilled.

One day, I asked myself, “Why do I keep doing this? I always tell myself I’m gonna do something, and I don’t, then I end up feeling miserable while I’m doing work that means nothing to me.”

I got no answer that day.

The next time I got fed up while doing freelance work, I called a friend to rant to blow off some steam…

I told him about the product, the website, and everything I’ve been saying I’m gonna do.

He waited until I finished speaking and calmly responded, “Kurtis, you can’t do everything yourself.”

That was my eureka moment.

You can’t do everything yourself!

Many people are stuck in the trap of trying to do everything by themselves.

There’s quite a few reasons why this happens…

My dad, for example, likes things done his way.

No one is gonna tell that man how to wash his clothes, invest, or anything of the sort.

He likes things as he likes them, and you can’t tell him different.

I, on the other hand, did everything myself because I was more of a “save resources” guy…

I always thought, “If I could do it myself, why pay someone else?”

Your reason may simply be that you love control, so you’d rather do it yourself.

Ultimately, all of these mindsets are detrimental and wrong.

Most people find themselves wrapped up in more activities than they bargained for.

Popular culture makes it seem like this is the way to success — you know… The “Rags to Riches” story.

But it’s false; It’s just PR bullsh*t.

Doing everything yourself is not good for you.

Our brains can only handle so much…

According to remote talent platform Outsourcery, the danger of doing everything yourself is that it can result in “Burnout, poor quality sleep, weight gain, and other physical health issues, unhealthy levels of stress and anxiety, and strained relationships in your personal life.”

This is because our brains are limited by design.

There is only so much your brain can process before it starts to perform poorly.

University College London conducted a study to investigate the impact of energy demands on our brain's processing capacity.

The findings revealed that our brains have an upper limit on how much they can process at any one time due to a constant but limited energy supply.

One researcher stated, “The brain does indeed allocate less energy to the neurons that respond to information outside the focus of our attention when our task becomes harder.”

This explains why we experience phenomena known as inattentional blindness and deafness...

Namely, inattention blindness and deafness are when we fail to notice a fully visible but unexpected object or hear audible sounds because our attention is engaged in another task.

When trying to do everything yourself, your brain has high-energy demands…

However, since your attention is split in multiple ways, you begin to underperform, especially on tasks you find less interesting — even if they’re important.

This can end up costing you in the long run.

For example, I began failing to meet the deadlines I gave my clients. I was tarnishing my reputation.

This is a common sign you’re doing everything yourself…

You become extremely busy, but you’re not getting much done.

In the process, you neglect important relationships and have limited time to care for your own psyche.

Over time, your mental and physical health starts to decline as a result.

Lighten your load

“Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction.” — C. S. Lewis

The secret to exponential growth is lightening your load.

Ask for help and cut things off!

This is a skill the world’s most successful entrepreneurs have mastered.

When you’re doing less, you can apply more of yourself to the activities you like doing.

This allows you to produce some of your best quality work.

The world's so-called “self-made” people wouldn’t be where they are if they never lightened their load to focus on activities they enjoy and could scale.

If you wanna become the best version of yourself fast, you must lighten your load.

Do away with things you don’t enjoy doing and cannot scale.

Note this will be scary at first…

You’ll have every excuse not to give it up.

For example, before I hired a web developer and copywriter for my website, I was still battling the notion that it didn’t make sense to pay someone to do something I could do myself.

I thought this way because I saw lightening my load as a loss (i.e., a loss of cash).

You must avoid this way of thinking!

Anytime you remove a responsibility that allows you to focus on more significant tasks, you’re making an investment in yourself.

You’re not losing; you’re gaining.

With that said, there’s 3 ways you can lighten your load:

#1 Automation

This is when you hand over a repetitive task to software.

For example, I post 3x a day on X and 2x a day on Linkedin.

These are repetitive tasks...

Instead of showing up at the same time every day to post, I pay for software that allows me to schedule my posts beforehand.

There’s several systems you can create to automate repetitive tasks in your life.

Outsource

Outsourcing is when you pay someone else to do the work.

The key to outsourcing effectively is to map out precisely what you’re looking for in someone you wish to hire.

For instance, I knew I didn’t merely want a web developer. I wanted someone with experience building websites for solopreneurs selling digital products.

They had to know more than just designing, as I wanted their input on the best strategies for branding and marketing using a website.

You usually have to pay a premium when outsourcing good quality, hence the saying, “It takes money to make money” — with more money, you can get the best of the bunch.

This method of lightening the load has always been the hardest for me.

A booster for you will be to always remind yourself, “This is an investment, not an expense.”

Drop it altogether

Sometimes, you’ve gotta drop an activity altogether.

It did what it needed to do for a stage, but now you must move on.

This is my whole vibe with freelancing…

I got into freelancing when I was made redundant during the pandemic.

I needed the money to support my livelihood.

Now, I’m in a better place, and the time required to perform my freelance work gets in the way of the time required to invest in activities that allow me to scale further.

You must realize when an activity has run its course.

Steve Jobs did this when he returned to Apple in 1997…

Mind you, this was a time when Apple was struggling.

His first action was to reduce Apple's product offerings by more than 90%.

The company went from having more than 350 different products to just 10.

Now, Apple is one of the biggest companies in the world.

You’ve gotta apply this same level of ruthlessness.

Final thoughts

Trying to do everything yourself is a recipe for disaster.

Not only does it stunt your growth, it’s also super bad for your physical and mental health.

Our brains are limited in how much they can process at any one time…

To ensure you’re performing at your absolute best, you must lighten the load of responsibilities you have on your plate.

Hone in on the most rewarding activities!

This enables you to apply yourself better, leading to a significantly improved quality of work and overall results.

Thanks for reading!

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