Should Do's

In a recent episode of a favorite podcast series, Prof G , both a successful serial entrepreneur and marketing guru/professor at my alma mater (you see why he’s among my faves) shared that one of the biggest differences he made after achieving financial success was cutting right back on ‘should do’s’.? It got me reflecting.

Must do’s are an inevitable part of life.? Taxes, death, paying what is required to survive.? We may grumble, but they’re there for a reason.?

Want-to-do’s usually add more in the form of joy, fulfilment, achievement or fun than the effort they require.? Meeting up with friends for a tasty meal comes to mind.? Even if it is across town, we know we’ll get more out of it than we put in.

It's those pesky should do’s that cost us so much grief.? First in dithering whether we’re in or out. ?And sometimes, dithering again closer to the 11th hour…should I really go?? Or FOMO may strike as we wonder “Maybe I should have said ‘yes’?”

Motherhood entails a fair few ‘should-do’s’.? An indelible memory that surfaces is the cacophony of children’s shouts and squeals bouncing off the walls and ceiling of the local public swimming pool at the 6th birthday party of your daughter’s classmate.? Ninety minutes of relentless, piercing noise. (If only noise-cancelling earphones had been invented by then.)

Corporate roles also bring with them their fair share of should do’s.? Never ear-splitting like children’s screaming, thankfully, but there are lots of examples of tasks that are positioned as mandatory.? So, if we want to excel in or even safeguard our role, we really should pluck up the mental fortitude and just do them.?

Giving constructive feedback to someone who you know won’t embrace change comes to mind. Or taking hours to meticulously calibrate talent across your extended team when you know from experience all that work will go out the window in the next round, which will largely be determined by anecdotal evidence and favoritism.? I may sound a cynic.? I didn’t enter corporate life that way; it took 15 years to achieve.

I’d love to say that should do’s all disappear in the startup life, but unfortunately that’s just not true. ?Reporting, and particularly reformatting reporting is still something I should do, but I’ll never love it. But so far with Zonder , as was the case with my previous startup experience, should do’s are significantly reduced. ?There’s been minimal reformatting required, no extraneous dog-and-pony shows for visiting ‘muckety mucks’, and very few instances where I question why I’m wasting my time.? (And for these few times, the answer has been because I didn’t fully think something through initially! ??) Rather, as a co-founder it’s in my influence or control to avoid many of the triggers that occur in corporate life - an unreasonable ‘boss’ (or board member / investor), and the chances are slim that I would inherit a toxic employee.?

Want-to-Do's

I chose Zinc as it’s an impact accelerator, which is helping me use more of my time to do want-to-do’s.? These are what banish the Monday Blues, motivate me to get one step closer to fixing a broken system for people living with chronic illness.? How will Zonder help??

When we look forensically at the care pathways, multiple inefficiencies and shortcomings are obvious.? People ask us why no one is fixing these already.? We know some individuals and companies are trying, but it’s a huge problem, and it needs a concerted effort.? I am confident with my marketing experience, particularly the approach of repeated trials and optimisation, I can make a difference to the care patients receive.? And with my co-founder, Govin Murugachandran ’s broad clinical and digital experience, we can help design a system, boosted by technology that is both more effective for the patient and more efficient for healthcare providers.

The Ask

If you run a primary care practice in the UK and would like to discuss partnering with us in the development and refinement of a lower cost and higher efficacy system for delivering chronic care, please get in touch.

This week’s:

Highlight -? Aforementioned dinner across town.? Five of my Zinc founder friends, Joss Rogers , Torbj?rn Maaherra , Sai Ulluri , Natalia Baltazar , and Mehrnaz Ghojeh , co-founders of impressive impact startups (respectively) DeepRoots , Roots2Grow, Okhtapus , ThinkDivergent , SmartShift Energy , and Okhtapus , joined me for fine Californian wine and an array of tapas-style dishes, all delicious and all made with crickets.? Check out Yum Bug if you want to change the way you feel about eating insects. Or want to try the best Cheese & Ale Croquettes you’ve ever had.

Lowlight - Slow pace of operational tasks.? I have to remember not every function is as quick-paced as marketing.