Being a CEO or General Manager of your startup business is fraught with so many decisions. Like hundreds of them. At best, you would like to get most of them right. There are product, sales, marketing, team and financing decisions. How the heck do you prioritize them as there are way too many tasks to even remotely get done in a day or week even.
I remember when my then 8 year old son asked me what I do. My answer, Jake – every day I write down 10 things I would like to get done and if I am lucky, I can get 3 completed. And that list of 10 comes from a list of 100. The next day, there is another 100 to choose from.
When I look back on my career and the many opportunities I had to lead a team, my greatest regret is the amount of time I spent on the customer. Building product is more fun but does not pay the bills.
My advice to you, spend at least 50% of your time understanding who your customers are and how to find more of them.
If you need a bit of inspiration, shuffle over to my new book where you can read why Customers are #1 in Build The Fort.