4 Non-Business Lessons I Only Learned Because I Started A Business

Read time: 5 minutes

Running a business will teach you many lucrative lessons — but there are also some (even better) non-business lessons you pick up along the way.

Read this if you want to learn the four remarkable (yet simple) lessons that have made me a better, richer human, and smarter, more impactful business owner.

I’ll limit the preamble and cut to the chase.

These are 4 lessons I’m glad to have stumbled upon.

Lesson #1: “Just in time” learning will help you progress faster than ”just in case” learning.

I've been an obsessive learner my entire life.

My strategy has been to build a wealth of knowledge to connect the dots when needed. It’s served me well, but this “just in case” learning has a downside: energy spent becomes wasted more often, or the knowledge sits dormant/becomes forgotten.

This isn't to say learning this way is bad, but I learned a “just in time” approach is more effective.

“Just in time” learning is about immersing yourself in the specific knowledge you need to take the very next step (in your progress). The goal is to shorten the gap between learning and application (and prevent thinking and reading as a form of false procrastination).

If progress equals happiness, then a “just in time” approach fuels progress better than a “just in case” approach.

If I didn’t have a business, I would have kept collecting knowledge for its potential, not its function.

Lesson #2: Aligning your work schedule to your energy levels is more impactful than defaulting to the standard 9-5 and Monday-Friday.

I absolutely love working — the problem is I can easily overlook brute force for a good work ethic.

About 18 months ago, I came to my senses. Instead of just talking about working harder and smarter — I did it. I made two significant changes in line with a critical insight: performance, mood, and energy are greatly impacted by “when” you do things.

The first change was to my workday — I created the slow-low-sprint framework.

Each day has three blocks based on my mental energy and vigilance levels:

• a slow block for critical/strategic thinking, writing, or analytical work (in the morning, I have a high energy/high vigilance)

• a low block for administrative work (around midday, I have low energy/low vigilance)

• a sprint block for collaborative, social, and client work (in the afternoon, I have high energy/low vigilance)

It's allowed me to do more creative work without impacting my business. You can read more about how it all works here — I’ve recommended it to many highly ambitious people.

The second change was to my workweek — instead of working 5 days on and 2 days off, I swapped Wednesday and Saturday.

• ON days: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

• OFF days: Wednesday, Sunday

The two days off in a row never felt like a proper recovery. I'd get too antsy to return to work, which meant I wasn’t present on Sundays, and any recovery from Saturday was lost.

The workweek switch immediately solved my “antsy and recovery” problem, plus it led to better mental performance and other benefits:

• A "no-fires or distraction" day (no email/meetings on Saturday)

• The late-week energy drags disappeared (which happens to everyone, even the crazy ones like me)

• My brain kept thinking I had a buffer/bonus day (so I felt less pressure on "urgent" tasks)

If I didn’t have a business, I would have never realized the benefits of finding the right work structure to fit my energy levels.

Lesson #3: Spending money to save time is smarter (and better) than spending time to save money.

I finally permitted myself to buy my time back.

For 30+ years, I spent time to save money — now running the business, I can’t believe I operated that way. This past year, I 5x the investment in software, tools, courses, and advice. It’s given me space to think and execute (and I still have more time to buy back).

For example, in 2023:

• I invested in automation software and subscriptions that save me 6+ hours a week (e.g., Hypefury, Grammarly, Beehiiv, Zapier, plus others).

• I spent thousands on courses to learn specific skills faster (e.g., Ship 30 for 30, Creator MBA, plus more).

• I paid specialists and joined communities to learn nuances of business functions and strategies (e.g., email marketing, digital advertising, plus more).

If I didn’t have a business, I would have been stuck spending time to save money.

Lesson #4: Taking the time to understand the nuances of health insurance dramatically boosts your finances.

As an employee, I ignored the importance of understanding health insurance.

Maybe it’s because it was part of the benefits package, or I didn’t need to use it often, but I was vastly undereducated on the topic.

When you move to being a business owner, it’s no longer a benefit. You pay much more for much less coverage — almost to the point where you are effectively uninsured. But it was actually a good thing because it was a forcing function to understand an aspect of life that forever has physical, mental, emotional, and financial ramifications.

I now believe most people need to invest more time in understanding it (along with taxes and real estate — but that’s for another day).

The most important discovery was leveraging my business and health savings accounts (HSA) to maximize coverage and reduce risk/costs.

If you don’t know about HSAs, you must — they are absolute gold.

• Triple tax-benefit vehicles — tax deduction on the way in, tax-free growth, and tax-free on the way out (for medical purposes)

• No time limit on when to take reimbursements (so you can let the account grow tax-free and request the reimbursement years later — make sure to keep the receipts)

• It can be used for Medicare premiums (when applicable)

I now fund my HSA before my retirement accounts (This is not financial advice — as it works well for my situation, so please research for yourself).

Among other healthcare lessons, I figured out:

• how to do proactive research (to prevent costs)

• how to get good at assessing bills and codes

• how to negotiate charges (to reduce costs)

These may be obvious to you; if so, you are definitely in the minority. People throw thousands of dollars away each year, plus a lack of knowledge can contribute to economic challenges.

If I didn’t have a business, I would still be uneducated about health insurance and tossing money away.

Thanks for reading.

Peter

P.S. Share this with a friend, colleague, or even a stranger who runs a business — I bet they could relate to specific lessons they only realized once they started the business.

If you missed last week’s post

Last week, I wrote:

How I Reinvented Professional Growth

It’s a lesson in how you view growth impacts how you achieve it. I used to see growth as a ladder, but now it’s a game.

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Hi, I’m Peter. I quit my highly-regarded, 6-figure job at Harvard to build a strategy consulting company in 2019.

I’ll help intellectually minded business owners grow profits by channeling strategic, critical, and creative thinking to impact decisions.

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