If your to-do list feels like a magnet, constantly pulling you back to it in every spare moment, you’re leading like a rookie.
As a founder, executive, or entrepreneur, your primary role isn’t getting things done. It’s thinking about, planning for, creating opportunities, & solving problems that no one else in your company is focused on.
If a “productive day” means checking off your list, you’re hitting ground balls and celebrating like they’re home runs.
To-do lists are useful, but at your level, you need a second list…one that creates disproportionate value.
The 10x List.
This is a list of questions, but not just any questions. These are the ones that, if answered, would create exponential value in your business or life. That might mean increasing revenue, but it could just as easily be:
- Retaining top clients or key employees
- Fixing systems that drain time and energy
- Building a leadership team that actually leads
- Recession-proofing your model
- Gaining back discretionary time
- Deepening your relationships with your significant other or kids
Here are six 10x questions to get you started:
- If my mission was to become the undisputed category king in my industry within 24 months—what fake constraints, people-pleasing BS, or outdated playbooks would I have to torch today?
- If a world-class operator or strategist took over my business tomorrow, what are the first three things they’d do that I’m currently not doing (or avoiding)?
- What part of my business model (or identity) am I unconsciously protecting that’s actually the bottleneck to my next level?
- If I had to 10x revenue in 6mo without working more hours, what would I stop doing immediately—and what would I obsessively focus on instead?
- What am I pretending is ‘just the way it is’ in my business, my leadership, or my relationships, that’s actually a prison I’ve normalized?
- What would it take to elevate my leadership team into a group of deeply invested, self-led visionaries—who think, act, and execute like co-founders, not just competent executors?
Imagine what would happen if you spent just 60 minutes each week wrestling with one of these.
Turn off the noise.
Sit down with a pen.
Don’t stop until you’ve uncovered a specific, risky, energizing next move.
Sometimes it’ll come in 30 minutes. Sometimes it won’t come until week three.
That’s okay. This isn’t linear work. It’s compound interest thinking.
And over time, it produces breakthroughs that no to-do list ever will.
