Being Proactive vs. Reactive: How to Build a REAL Business, Not Just a Glorified Job

Many of us get caught up in the everyday tasks of our jobs without realizing that "busy" work, doesn't necessarily mean productive work. What’s the difference between working IN our business vs. ON our business? Is it possible to build a business that brings you consistently-growing, reliable income without you having to "wear all the hats" in production mode? What’s the drawback of focusing only on the urgent and important tasks? In this episode, I talk about building a REAL business vs. building a practice, and the dangers of getting caught up in minutia of low-value tasks.​

 

You have to get a systems-based business, not a “you”-based business.-Doren Aldana  

 

Takeaways

• There are two approaches: We are either reactive or proactive about our career. We are either practice-builders or business-builders.
• A reactive person is always on top of things, solving problems as they arise and meeting deadlines, but they work only on things that their job dictates.
• A proactive person works on important tasks that aren’t necessarily urgent, but he or she is also a business builder.
• Being proactive is all about future planning. It involves making time for important tasks that aren’t urgent, but are critical for the growth of our business.

At the beginning of the episode, we talked about practice builders vs. business builders. Next, we talked about how we can be more proactive. We also talked about how reactive people respond to life, and how proactive people are different.

We also covered:

• How mentors can save us years of learning and making mistakes
• How systems help your business run even in your absence
• How we can be avoid being busy yet not productive

 

Most of the tasks we do on a daily basis are urgent, but not life-changing. We need to ask ourselves where we will be next year if we continue to do the the same things we do today. Becoming a better version of ourselves is never urgent, as nobody forces us to build a business. Being proactive is important if we dream of building a business that can run by itself without us being part of the production. There’s only one solution to this: making our growth the priority instead of focusing on growing somebody else’s business.