Lazy Leverage

Have you ever been called something that stuck with you for a lifetime?

For me, it was being called the "laziest motivated person in the world," a title bestowed upon me by my parents during my childhood.

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Little did they know, this nickname would form the beginning of an identity that I still cherish today.

• Why did I play sports in college? It was the lazy man’s way to go to a good school.

• Why did I get obsessed with Crossfit for 10 years? It was the lazy (i.e., efficient) way to get in really good shape.

The list goes on and on, and weaves through most of my professional and personal endeavors.

Bringing things up to the present day - I've been sharing my thoughts under the banner of "Extreme Outsourcing."

But truth be told, I've always felt a bit of dissonance with this name.

Outsourcing?

That isn’t really what I do; I focus on deep integrations with Global Talent, which is also just one part of what I help businesses with.

So, after much reflection (not really, but it makes this sound more important), I've landed on a concept that truly encapsulates my ethos: Lazy Leverage.

It comes from combining two powerful quotes:

Bill Gates — 'I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.'

Naval Ravikant - ‘There are four different kinds of leverage: capital, labor, code, and media’ (From his legendary thread, how to get rich without getting lucky)

The Pillars of My Lazy Leverage

Talent Leverage: This is all about how to effectively use other peoples’ labor to create outsized results.

This was my original love affair with leverage - specifically around using global talent better than anyone else around me.

I'd also include things like systemization and Notion into this category because it's what enables really powerful labor leverage to happen on auto pilot.

What I am doing in this Category: 1clickassistant, advisory work, a secret squirrel company, OrganizedGarage.com, PMbusinessinaBox.com

No-Code, Automation, AI, Tech: I have to define this a little bit more narrowly than some, because I am not a coder, BUT that doesn't matter these days with no code and AI driven coding.

My interest in this form of leverage is a natural byproduct of chasing labor leverage, and something that has been an obsession of mine for several years.

Being able to build a powerful air table database or correctly use some of the powerful large language models coming out in the last year can produce huge leveraged results.

What I am doing in this category: TeamWiki.co, RoadRecap.com

Media: This is the form of lazy leverage that I am the most recent student of.

This newsletter, as well as my Twitter profile, has done more to increase my leverage in the last year than any single activity I've pursued.

I suspect that I will continue to invest in and learn about how to use media to both an external and internal audience to increase my personal leverage.

What I am doing in this category: This newsletter, my Twitter, Vivaldi

(I don’t have many unique things to say about capital leverage, so will leave that out)

Looking Ahead

This newsletter is set to become a hub for all things Lazy Leverage.

Expect stories, strategies, and insights as I try to unpack and apply this powerful concept.

I’m in this for the long haul, exploring how Lazy Leverage can transform the way I work, live, and build the life I desire.

So, as we embark on this journey together, I invite you to rethink what it means to be ambitious, to be efficient, and yes, to be "lazy."

Lazy Leverage is more than a concept; it's a way of living...and I can't wait to explore its endless possibilities alongside you.

Yallah Habibi,

Jon

P.S. I’m switching over to Beehive for the next issue, and you’ll see the new newsletter title of “Lazy Leverage”.

Passage of the Week (and the opening passage at my wedding):

“When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me-it still sometimes happens-and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife.

They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again.

Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions.

The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again.

I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl.

But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief and precious life is.

We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting.

Every single moment that we were alive and we were together was miraculous-not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural.

We knew we were beneficiaries of chance. . . .

That pure chance could be so generous and so kind. . . .

That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space and the immensity of time. . . .

That we could be together for twenty years.

That is something which sustains me and it’s much more meaningful. . . .

The way he treated me and the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other and our family, while he lived.

That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday.

I don't think I'll ever see Carl again.

But I saw him.

We saw each other.

We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful.”

― Ann Druyan