Seth Godin – Serial Marketer – came up with a brilliant concept called “Yak Shaving.” Here’s my twist.
Yak Shaving is the final, unexpected step in a long chain of tasks that you end up doing when you find something that needs to be done.
Imagine you decide, “Today’s the day I’m going to polish the car.” “Oh no, I’ve just remembered the hosepipe got cracked during the last water outage. I’ll need to buy a new one from Builders Warehouse.”
“But Builders is up the road, and I need to put oil in my car. So I will go down to the garage and buy oil. But I need to go up the hill to draw money to buy oil. But there is no electricity, so I will have to ask the neighbour to help open the garage door, but I can’t do that because I haven’t spoken to the neighbour for the last few months.”
And before you know it you you’re at the zoo, shaving a yak, all so you can polish your car.
“This Yak Shaving phenomenon tends to happen to some of us more than others, but it becomes particularly frustrating when groups are involved. This is why solo entrepreneurs and small businesses are often more efficient—they have fewer yaks to shave.”
So, what’s the solution?
Don’t go to Builders for the hosepipe.
The moment you sense you’re heading down a path toward a Yak Shaving expedition, consider making a compromise. Doing it well now is far better than doing it perfectly later.
https://seths.blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that/
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