- One of the habits that successful
people have is they spend time alone.
Bill Gates, two times a year, each time seven day.
He will spend time all by himself in the forest,
no cell phone, no computer, just totally
disconnect from the outside, modern world.
He calls that the think week.
Now, why do successful people
spend time alone, by themselves?
You see, very often, we are so close to our problem,
we're so close to our issues, that we don't
take enough time to think about the issue.
We need to step back and think
about, hmm, what exactly is the problem here?
And during the thinking time, Bill Gates
would do a lot of reading, we would do a lot of thinking,
he would do a lot of journaling.
(billiard ball cracking and thumping)
And during that time, that gives him
the time to think about what he does.
One of the reasons why I take multiple vacations a year is,
unlike most people, they're taking vacations to get away
from what they do, 'cause they hate what they do,
I go on vacations because I need thinking time.
I need to put some space between what I do
and who I want to become, and where do we need to be.
I need to have some time,
and it gives myself some space to think.
One of the most powerful questions I like to ask
myself during a thinking time is
what don't I know, and what don't I see?
And what assumptions am I making
that I'm not aware of,
that's giving me what I see?
I need to know, I need to think.
And that's why one of my most productive
time is actually Christmas.
Now, you might ask why.
Because in December, everyone else is busy.
They're going shopping, it's holiday,
they're taking time off, and that's the time that I have
space that gives me thinking time.
That's when I do my planning, that's when I do
my strategizing, that's when I put on my thinking hat.
And what do I need to focus on in order to be where
I wanna be, what's my plan for 2019,
'20, or next year, what am I trying to do,
when no one's bugging me, there's no interview,
there's no PR tour, there's nothing.
So, then, what most people do is,
when they get to December, they take a lotta time off.
I take vacation when no one else is taking vacation.
That's why I took my time off in October
instead of December.
So, by the time most people, they get to January,
now, they're getting back into the game,
they're getting back in business, right?
Now, they are setting the New Year goal,
the New Year resolution.
By the time January comes, you know that,
it takes a couple weeks to get into it,
and then New Year resolution,
then everybody else getting back to work.
Before you know it, it's the end of January,
and it takes a couple weeks to build momentum,
then it's February they actually start to work;
versus me, I don't wanna do that.
I want to do it early.
I want to focus, I wanna get it done in December,
(billiard ball cracking and thumping)
so that when December time, I have momentum already.
So, when people start in February,
December I've done most of the work,
I've done most of planning.
In January, first day, I am launching.
I am building momentum.
There's no need to build a momentum,
I already have momentum.
Before the end of January, I'm already months ahead
compared to my competitors, compared to my peers.
That's the power of thinking time.
So, comment below, take some time, go ahead and think.
And remember, business is an intellectual sport.
Business is about who's got the intellects.
Creating wealth is an intellectual sport,
it's called Think and Grow Rich.
It's not Netflix and grow rich,
it's not meditate and grow rich,
it's not hustle and grow rich,
it's called Think and Grow Rich.