- Biz Brainstorms by Connor Gross
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- 5 Habits/Goals For 2024
Welcome to Biz Brainstorms –
My name's Connor.
I go down weekly rabbit holes of business ideas & lessons.
Today's Topic: 5 Habits/Goals For 2024
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I’m working on 2024 at the moment.
But I spent the last week reflecting, and here are the 3 themes I’m focusing on in 2024:
Network, Learning, Deep Work.
At a glance, it looks a little something like this:
Rent A Shared Office Space in NYC
Invest $10,000 & 20 hours into mentorship
Weekly Cold Outreach
Wake Up Earlier
Stay Intentionally Underemployed
Network:
Why this goal matters: I know I want to build more companies in the future. It’s almost a hobby at this point. And the number one thing that I’ve found to help grow companies is meet incredible people.
I got serious fomo this past year when visiting Zach Pogrobs office space.
This is a top goal for me for 3 reasons:
1. (Obviously) It separates where I live from my work. Which I think will make me happier.
2. It surrounds me with other entrepreneurs daily.
3. It creates a space to meet new people.
The last is the most important for me.
It has been a goal ever since I read an article I love called Build Your Own Yacht:
For those of you who aren't familiar, Aristotle Onassis was one of the wealthiest businessmen in the 20th century. He started off as a tobacco trader, but he soon realized that the real money was in shipping, and became a shipping magnate as well as one of the richest men in the world. He was also a socialite, dating famous actresses, opera singers and ex-first lady's, including Maria Callas and Jacqueline Kennedy. Needless to say, the guy knew how to build relationships, both socially and financially. He was an expert at manufacturing advantageous situations at venues he controlled. He approached relationship-building different than most.
Once he had established himself, he bought a massive yacht and named it "Christina" after his daughter. To give you an idea of how big the boat was, he purchased it at the end of WWII and, as of 2018 - over 50 years later, it was still the 45th largest yacht in the world. Onassis would often live out of the yacht. And, most importantly, he would hold all social and business events on the yacht.
The brilliance of this move has never really been talked about. Think about how easy it is to build a relationship with someone after they board your yacht for a party or even just for a business meeting. Social proof, check. Credibility, check. Everyone knowing who you are in a positive way, check. All of your past work (in this case his success as a shipping tycoon) being reflected in the interaction, check. Then there's the physical act of boarding the boat as well, which implicitly tells you that you're not on your home turf anymore. You're on his. It's really utterly brilliant. By stepping on the yacht, you've completely fallen into his frame. Everything after that occurs on his terms, not yours.
I’m not buying a yacht right now. But a 1,200 SF office space in NYC? Possible.
In 2021 when I was building The Next Generation podcast, I was cold DMing and emailing people DAILY.
It was a bit of work, but led me to meeting 100+ awesome humans.
I’ve let up on the gas a bit since, but the idea of meeting some of the smartest people online is something that gives me a lot of energy.
So I want to block out some time on Fridays both for outreach & scheduling calls to meet new people.
Learning:
Why this goal matters: I’ll reference Charlie Mungers inversion prompt here: The best way to fail in life is to not learn from the people who have died before you. It can be hard to rationalize spending a ton of time here if you come out of the modern education system and think “did I just spend $200,000 to learn about the 4 P’s of Marketing?” But when you spend $13 on a book that changes how you fundamentally think, the value quickly becomes evident.
I love Ramit Sethi’s point of view on how could you spend 10x more on the thing you love.
Right now between courses, books & consulting calls, I probably spend around $1,500/year. What would it look like if I spent $10,000?
It’s a good thought experiment:
My guess would be:
1. Paying for access to a peer group (YPO, Hampton, EO)
2. Paying for more courses/eBooks that can get me where I need to be faster
3. Paying for business advisory (specific mentors for specific companies)
Invest 20 Hours Into Structured Mentorship
This one is simple.
I have plenty of people in my life who are smarter & further along than I am.
People I can text or call for their opinions.
But it’s reactive. I’m working now to schedule monthly(ish) calls with people who have the career I want to discuss how to get there.
Deep Work:
Why this goal matters: Everything I listed above supports this goal. If I didn’t own companies that I could work on, the learning and network are kind of irrelevant. But make no mistake, this is the only goal that actually matters. All of these are loose goals with the goal to do better work.
Wake Up Earlier
This is hard to define.
Because if I say I’ll wake up at 6 AM daily, I just know that habit is getting broken.
But I know for certain having 3 hours of uninterrupted work is exponentially better for business growth than 8 hours with a few meetings mixed in.
My goal here is probably more cummulative vs. steak based.
Can I wake up at 6 AM 100 days in 2024?
Probably easier than doing it every day and feeling discouraged when I inevitably miss.
Stay Underemployed
I cram a lot of tasks in a short period of time.
And I know I love the feeling of being productive. This comes with a trade-off though.
The benefit of having free-time means you have time to think, ideate, and solve problems that might not be possible when your to-do list is 25 items long.
It’s why the time between Christmas and New Years people plan big goals (because they have space to think)
It seems counter intuitive, but creating that space can make you more productive in 2024.
Cut Meetings
This past year I averaged 13 reccuring meetings every week.
Not including one-off meetings…
I recognize meetings importance for structure, but god damn they drain me.
In 2024, I’m going to focus on reducing that number closer to 5/week.
-Connor
PS – These last few emails have been different from the typical business idea blasts. What do you think about them?
PPS – What’s 1 thing you’re working on in 2024?