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Good morning Launch Key 🚀 community!

For those who celebrate, every single horse in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby was a direct descendant of Secretariat. And in another sign that we may be living in a simulation 😉, Sovereignty beat out Journalism to win the 151st “Run for the Roses.”

Besides the betting haul, the Kentucky Derby sold 125,000 Mint Juleps this weekend (avg $20) to generate a cool $2.5 million for the Greatest Two Minutes in Sports.

Somebody kept their eye on the cash flow prize as the hype circled all around them.

Let's get into it.

Comment below and let me know if we’re on the right track.

Table of Contents

• Pull to Eject

  • Farm it out

• Old School Wisdom

• Free Knowledge

• Recommendations

• Visual Crapshoot

Pull to Eject

This week’s message dovetails with last week’s power of the word ‘No.’ Staying out of everything to concentrate on your main thing is paramount.

Starting and running businesses is a fantastic learning experience. I made a ton of entrepreneurial mistakes over the years, but I learned a lot about myself. I was pretty good at selling new technology projects. I knew where the line of ‘can do’ and ‘will take an eternity to build’ was, and tried not to overpromise. I learned how to differentiate and market our services. I had a knack for hiring and built some great teams.

But I was also humbled by the things that almost killed us. And in those moments of failure I learned a huge lesson: focus on areas where you can excel.

Most entrepreneurs are guilty of trying to be a jack-of-all-trades.

• We don’t want to give up control.

• We need to save money.

• We’re not great at delegating.

• We do know the most about what we’re trying to build.

• We might change direction this afternoon

But all of us have a main thing that makes the original idea original. And that is where the majority of our focus needs to remain.

Farm it out

When you are starting a new venture, everything’s fun and exciting. Then in the middle of the business lifecycle, everyone wants to quit. You’ve sold something and now you have to deliver. You don’t get to just ‘propose it’ like the classic UPS ad, you need to create it and manage it, and bill for it and collect on it.

The middle stuff has the familiar pain of two steps forward and one step back. You probably need to develop repeatable processes. And it’s most likely the time when you realize you’re bad at some parts or you just hate doing them. You need to farm those parts out.

In the old days the only gig economists were artists, accountants and lawyers. But they had the right model.

With the proliferation of the internet across the globe, outsourcing overseas is no longer reserved for large organizations. In fact, when my 1990’s agency was in its infancy we sent daily files back and forth between Hawaii and Charlotte allowing us to work almost around the clock. Later companies often leveraged services of contractors in Asia, Europe, and South America.

Designers, developers, business analysts, writers, project managers, executive assistants, marketers, sales people - all rentable just like accountants and lawyers. The savings of time and effort is worth it if you find the right outsource partners.

The trick is to identify what you’re great at, focus on that, then find a way to offload the rest to professionals who will make you more efficient.

Is it hard to keep focus? Absolutely. And my own friends, associates and even family will find it hilarious that I’m writing about it.

But it’s critical.

And your main thing is exactly why you started this thing in the first place.

Now go launch something 🚀 

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Old School Wisdom

Chris Guillebeau identified 1,500 individuals who have built businesses earning $50,000 or more from a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less), and focused on the 50 most intriguing case studies. In nearly all cases, people with no special skills discovered aspects of their personal passions that could be monetized, and were able to restructure their lives in ways that gave them greater freedom and fulfillment.

Free Knowledge

Jack Butcher chimes in on the fact that distraction will cost you. Keep the focus – especially after you gain a little traction.

Recommendations

🗃️ Dealroom Business Success Uncovered : Learn directly from billionaire entrepreneurs on how to grow a business. Join a community of 2,000+ innovators.

📰 Newsletter Operator : Learn how to grow and monetize your newsletter. Trusted by 30,000+ media founders, CEOs, creators.

🧠 The Cautionary: Join 30,000 newsletter subscribers to discover the patterns that lead to failure and learn how to avoid them.

🤖 AI Report : Learn AI in 5 minutes a day. We'll teach you how to save time and earn more with AI. Join 400,000+ free daily readers from Tesla, Apple, A16z, Meta, & more.

👋 Huntrs : Join Hanna Larrson and learn how to build your personal brand and audience, monetize your knowledge, build multiple income streams and a lean, profitable online business.

📕 MGMT Playbook : Practical management insights straight to your inbox every Wednesday.

Visual Crapshoot