Whether you are running a startup, building a relationship, or rebuilding a community, there’s an easy part and a hard part.  One requires less work in the moment while the other unlocks the potential of your efforts and concurrently is the playground for personal growth.

Those comfortable things that require little thinking, risk, or effort exist to test you.  They can easily chew up your time and trick you into thinking you’re being productive.  Updating your Facebook status, gossiping with colleagues, or going to yet another lunch are not the activities that will enable your achievement.  It’s the things you resist – those that are challenging and at times a bit scary – that are the real work.

Let’s say you run a software company.  Planning the holiday party and decorating the lobby are not the activities that will drive sales.  Making that 94^th cold call, listening deeply to customers in order to better serve their needs, or taking extra time to build a creative culture… those are far more difficult, yet will add a lot more value than simply going through the motions.

So many people fall into the ‘being productive’ trap.  Even though they squander their time on things that can barely be justified as adding value, the end of the day comes with you feeling as though a contribution has been made.  In today’s hyper-competitive environment, you’re job isn’t just to stay busy.  It is to prioritize your efforts and do the things that will add the most value – even when they’re more difficult.

Most organizations are filled with people spending 90% of their time doing the easy part; the tasks that require little insight and have no ambiguity.  By definition, the things that are clear-cut have the least room for innovation.  The hard part is where competitive advantage is won.  Where careers are made.  Where civilizations advance.

Take a quick inventory of this week’s upcoming calendar.  Are your days packed with activities that you could do just fine with a hangover, or are you investing your time in value creation?  Does the art of creative problem solving or unleashing your imagination require work, risk, and energy? Will it help you and your organization seize significant growth?  Absolutely.

What’s the hard part in your organization? What’s the hard part in your life?  Identify and sprint toward the hard part to enjoy the rewards that those other timid souls can only daydream about while they’re staying busy doing the easy part.

Love him or hate him, Floyd “Money” Mayweather, Jr. is the champ.  With a perfect record of 43-0, he’s the highest paid athlete in the world having earned over $200 million in the ring.  In Saturday’s pay-per-view bout, he made a cool $32 million; putting his total purse from the last three fights over $100 million.  Floyd is considered one of the greatest fighters of all time.

Mayweather is also brash, cocky, and trash talking.  While he has less humility than the Kardashians, he is undeniably remarkable.  His fights draw over one million paid viewings, and his performance is consistently near perfect.  When you look past the megalomania, there is inspirational grit and determination and many lessons we can apply to our own lives:

1. Singularity of Purpose – Floyd hasn’t cut a rap album, pursued politics, or launched a dot-com startup.  He puts every waking moment into being the best boxer in history.  He plays to his strengths and chases his purpose with laser beam focus.  Instead of spreading himself thin, he places every egg in one basket.  The result?  Greatness.

2. Unwavering Belief – Like most of us, Floyd’s had his share of detractors.  Along the road to winning eight world titles in five weight classes, many people (including his own father) told him he’d never make it.  But Floyd believed in himself even when in the face of adversity.  Irrespective of your chosen field, you must never let the nay-sayers hold you back from reaching your full potential.

3. Discipline and Commitment – Floyd’s a big talker, but he backs it up with substance.  His training regimen is grueling, yet he shows up fully to each session.  He has a chant with his team that reinforces his philosophy: Floyd shouts out “commitment” and his team chants back “determination.”  This mantra has helped Mayweather reach the highest levels, and the same grit can propel you there as well.  His work ethic and drive have earned him the right to be a champion, has yours?

4. Preparation – As the legendary boxing quote proclaims, “Champions don’t become champions in the ring.  They are merely recognized there.”  The same holds true for your pursuits.  Floyd prepares physically, but he also is a master strategist.  He thinks through every permutation of each fight before entering the arena.  How are you preparing for your own challenges?  Winging it can yield unfavorable results, but carefully planning your attack will help you snag the order, crush the competition, or secure that next round of funding.

5. Masterful Storytelling – Floyd’s incredible boxing skills are only part of his draw.  He is a master promoter, and his story simply cannot be ignored.  He’s authentic, unique, and compelling.  Some adore him and others despise him, but we can all agree he is a “category of one.”  When you tell your own story – for your company or career – make sure you’re standing out from the pack. In today’s competitive landscape, you must be highly differentiated in order to win.  Memorable.  Remarkable.  Noteworthy.  Even if you lose the order, make sure your message can’t be forgotten.

Floyd is making history in real time and so can you.  He grew up in a disadvantaged home in Grand Rapids, Michigan but has gone on to become the king of his sport.  The distance you’ll travel on your own journey is up to you.  Keep throwing power punches, and never stop swinging until the closing bell.

Money” Mayweather will be proud.

This hilarious video has been viewed over 21 million times.  As a young lady records her first dating video for eHarmony, she gets a bit, well, distracted:

As if that didn’t make you laugh hard enough, the Songify folks then made an even funnier auto-tune song from the video. That video has been viewed nearly 17 million times:

To top it all off, the CEO of an incredibly cool company extracted some real business value between the bursts of laughter.  Tyler Paxton, CEO of Detroit-based Are You A Human (full disclosure: I’m an investor), showed up the other day wearing a T-shirt proudly proclaiming “You can’t hug every cat.”  It turns out that Tyler and The Humans (as they are affectionately called) embraced this funny term to help them drive their hyper-growth startup.  Here’s how:

1. Hug Your Own Cat – Each person at the company can’t do everything.  If Tyler tried to do Reid’s job and do a little bit of Ben’s job too, nothing would get done.  The Humans know that each person (and team) has specific outcomes they’re responsible for delivering.  One can’t do everything all at once and expect strong results.

2. Trust Your Fellow Cats – If one leader is busy on a project (ie, “hugging a cat”), he has to trust that his co-founders are doing a great job on their own projects.  Tyler’s T-shirt reinforces that each person is accountable for his or her own areas and that company leaders must extend trust.  In a startup, no one has time to look over shoulders.  Organizations that lack trust can’t operate in warp speed.

3. Hug Fewer Cats – Whichever path you may be on, there will certainly be an endless string of distractions.  There’s always some new, shiny opportunity to lure you away and take your eye off the prize.  Knowing that you “can’t hug every cat” highlights the need to only pick a small number of truly critical focus areas, and attack with laser-beam focus.  Try to do everything, and you’ll end up with nothing.

We can all learn from serious business periodicals and thought-leader blogs, but we also garner tremendous insight from the silly things in life.  The simple t-shirts worn by The Humans reinforce key cultural messages in a compelling and memorable way — and with much more impact than some bland mission statement filled with hollow platitudes.

Knowing that you can’t hug every cat, how will you focus your energy to achieve your full potential?  Hugging every feline leaves you with nothing but a giant hairball.

So you’re launching a new business.  Or pitching to a new potential client.  Or trying to snag that promotion.  What will it take to bring home the win in today’s hyper-competitive environment?

You need to be better by a factor of ten.

Breaking through inertia to disrupt the status quo can feel more daunting than a swim across the English Channel.  In order to achieve at the highest levels, you’ll need to do something so compelling, so remarkable, and so brash, that it simply can’t be ignored.

As a consumer, you already have a “solution” to many things in your life.  You have a life insurance solution, an orange juice solution, and a favorite burger joint solution.  Sticking to these familiar patterns is safe and easy.  You don’t have to think much, allowing you to focus on the zillion other things happening in your life.  There has to be a juicy reward to entice you to buy a new digital camera, shun your favorite grocery store, or switch lite beers.

If you’re on the other side – selling instead of buying – you need to realize just how much force is needed to shake things up.   Your new mobile app that is only slightly better than the market leader isn’t going to be enough for you to reach the Promised Land.  It’s going to take a sonic boom of innovation to grab attention.

As a venture capitalist, I hear startup pitches every day.  When deciding which ones to back, we ask ourselves, “Does this new solution solve a customer problem ten times better than the current market leader?”  Unless you are bringing a profound improvement to market, going head to head with a giant that has deep resources, a substantial customer-base, and market leading brand equity is a surefire path to doom.  To bust through startup gravity and slay those dragons, you’ll need something that will truly draw a “wow.”

Is your sales pitch 10X better than your competitors’?  Is your theater performance 10X stronger than the others auditioning for the same part?  Is the software code you just wrote 10X better than last year’s version?

If you want to remove chance and luck from the outcomes in your life, focus on the 10X factor.  If you shoot for 10X, you’ll still win consistently even if you fall a bit short or hit an unexpected speed bump.  The ones that set records, make history, and change the world embrace the factor of ten.  It’s time for you to do the same.

There have been countless books written on getting ahead, habits of successful people, and forging solid relationships.  Each year, some new psycho-babble buzzword or slick management technique emerges to help success-starved individuals reach the next level.

When you really boil it down, the most effective thing you can do is simply over-deliver.  That’s right, no fancy 7-step program, cheesy business fable or pedantic sports analogy.

If you have a boss and she asks you to do something, go ahead and do it perfectly.  Nail the details, make sure it reflects your best work, and of course deliver on time.  From there, just add one extra thing that wasn’t asked for.  Maybe an extra idea or insight.  Perhaps an additional few pages of research or analysis that goes beyond the initial request.

I refer to this as an extra turn of the knob.

Imagine two team members working for the same leader.  Both do great work, but one consistently gives his work an extra turn of the knob.  Is there any question who will get that next promotion?

There are countless stories of famous actors who win the audition by doing something that goes above expectations.  Legendary athletes push themselves to train harder than their counterparts in order to extract the extra edge.  The politician who makes that one extra campaign stop ends up sealing her victory.

What would an extra turn of the knob look like in your life?  An extra visit to the gym each week?  Reading one more book per year?  Rehearsing your big presentation one extra time to make sure it’s the best one of the day?

Sure, you’re busy and you already do what you’re asked to do.  But in today’s competitive world, delivering high quality work is just the ante to play.  To reach your true potential and seize your dreams, simply give each project, sales pitch, or research report one extra turn of the knob.  If you do this consistently, you will steadily rise to previously unattainable heights.

When you peel away the leadership fads of the day, you’ll realize that getting to the next level is well within your grasp.  Whether you’re working to improve your company, community, or career, give each activity an extra turn of the knob and you’ll soon be basking in the light of extraordinary success.

Grammy-winning singer Mariah Carey has a five-octave vocal range.  She can stretch her voice to reach those super-high notes, and she can also swoop way down low to hit those rich, deep tones.

The best entrepreneurs and business leaders have a similar ability: they can zoom out to a 50,000 ft. view of their business, but also have the ability to zoom way down to deconstruct the finest of details.

Steve Jobs was legendary for this.  He had world-changing vision and had the big picture desire to put a “ding in the universe.”  He also had the ability to zero in on the minutia.  He sweated the small stuff.  He would agonize over the tiniest details and knew the intricacies of his designs and his business.

My business partner Dan Gilbert is the same way.  He reinvented the mortgage industry at Quicken Loans and is now rebuilding Detroit into a vibrant, tech-centric city.  Although he has vision to spare, he can break down business problems to a molecular level.  When we consider new startups for investment, he wants to know the big vision as well as all of the littlest elements that will allow an entrepreneur to execute her dream.

What’s your range?  Just being a “detail guy” or a “big picture girl” no longer cuts it.  In the fierce battle of today’s competitive landscape, you need to be able to zoom in and out in order to enjoy the thrill of victory.   If you are lacking one or the other, it’s time to further develop those skills if you want to achieve your full potential.

Now here is the good news: Your range is expandable.  You can train yourself to zoom in or out, and while it sounds cheesy, it all starts with believing you can do it.  Stop focusing on your imaginary limitations, and celebrate your ability to grow.

If you currently have a smaller range, you will take your game to the next level by expanding it.  Pretty soon you’ll win that new business deal, or land that highly coveted promotion.  The more valuable you make yourself, the more rewards you’ll enjoy.  Start pushing yourself to hit the high-highs and the low-lows (bigger, bolder vision and specific, methodical details) and you will rise quickly up the success curve.

The famous opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti grew his range throughout his career as he ascended to world-renowned status.  Expand yours, and you can enjoy a similar level of achievement.  And it’ll feel even better than hitting that high G flat.

As Chris Dixon pointed out in a recent blog post, Angry Birds, the incredibly popular game, was software maker Rovio’s 52nd attempt. They spent eight years and nearly went bankrupt before finally creating their massive hit.

Pinterest is one of the fastest growing websites in history, but struggled for a long time. Pinterest’s CEO recently said that they had “catastrophically small numbers” in their first year after launch and that if he had listened to popular startup advice he probably would have quit.

James Dyson “failed” in over 5100 experiments before perfecting his revolutionary vacuum cleaner.  Groupon was put on life support and nearly shut down at one point in its meteoric rise.

When looking at the most successful people and organizations, we often imagine a smooth journey straight to the promised land.  But when you really examine nearly every success story, they are filled with crushing defeats, near-death experiences, and countless setbacks.

We often celebrate companies and individuals once they’ve achieved undeniable success, but shun their disruptive thinking before reaching such a pinnacle.  Before Oprah was Oprah, before Jobs was Jobs, they were labeled as misguided dreamers rather than future captains of industry.

In your life, you’ve probably had a setback or two.  When you stumble, it’s tempting the throw in the towel and accept defeat.  There’s always an attractive excuse waiting eagerly, hoping you’ll take the easy way out.  But the most successful people forge ahead.  They realize that mistakes are simply data, providing new information to adjust your approach going forward.

The ubiquitous WD-40 lubricant got its name because the first 39 experiments failed.  WD-40 literally stands for “Water Displacement – 40^th Attempt.” If they gave up early on like most of us do, we’d sure have a lot more squeaky things in the world.

You have a mission to accomplish and an enormous impact to make on the world.  You will inevitably endure some “failures” along your journey but you must realize that persistence and determination have always been primary ingredients in accomplishment.

Don’t cave to your mistakes, embrace them.  In fact, mistakes are simply to the portals of discovery.  There’s an old saying that “every bull’s-eye is the result of a hundred misses.”  So the next time you feel the sting of failure, just realize you’re likely one shot closer to hitting your target.

And who knows?  Maybe after a few dozen failures and months or years of hard work, you might just be that next “overnight” success.

If you have a burning headache, you’ll do whatever it takes to subdue it.  If it’s 3:00 am on a cold, snowy night and you are out of pain killers, you’ll bundle up, drive to a 24-hour pharmacy, and desperately pay nearly any cost to alleviate your pain.

Vitamins are a different story.  They are a nice-to-have, not a gotta-have-right-now.  You certainly won’t race out in the middle of the night for them.  You’ll think twice about the cost, get to them when convenient, and likely forget them altogether on a semi-regular basis.

As a marketer, entrepreneur, or business leader, ask yourself… are you selling aspirin or vitamins?

It turns out that selling vitamins is roughly ten times more difficult since you are marketing an “optional” product.  Vitamin purchases lack urgency, are frequently price-sensitive, and offer the customer the viable alternative to doing absolutely nothing.

It’s obvious that fixing a broken furnace, diabetes meds, and basic food are in the “aspirin” category.  It’s also obvious that glamor magazines, luxury vacations, and diamond bracelets are “vitamins.”  But it’s likely the product you or your company sells is somewhere in the middle.

The difference is often how the product is positioned and marketed.  Savvy brands fork over millions to their agencies to advertise their latest gear as “must haves.”  You can skip the agencies by tapping into your own creativity and making sure you are standing out from the pack with a truly compelling offering.

As a venture capitalist, one of the first questions I ask myself when evaluating a startup for possible investment: Are they selling aspirin or vitamins?  Businesses that service burning demand and visceral human needs tend to accelerate faster and require far less marketing push than those that offer stuff customers can easily live without.

Whether you’re launching a new product line, starting a business, or expanding into a new geographic territory, give a deep look in the mirror to figure out which you are selling.  If it turns out you’re selling vitamins, it may be time to go back to the drawing board to sell something different or at a minimum to position your product/service/solution with more urgency.

The more you can solve a real consumer pain, the more success you’ll enjoy.  Just what the doctor ordered.

In an age when the pressures of the world can overwhelm the best of us, it can feel like the window of opportunity has become smaller than a tic tac.  Many entrepreneurs look back in time and long for the days when there were oodles of products not yet invented.  It’s one thing if you are a Zuckerberg-like tech geek, but innovating in more mature industries can feel more daunting than a swim across the Atlantic.

So how do you take on a big, established industry?  One recipe includes humor, web marketing, a borrowed business model, and a heaping dose of creativity.  DollarShaveClub.com launched last week and in their first seven days they snagged over 17,000 paid subscribers.  Their hilarious marketing video – produced for under $4500 – has been now seen by over three million people:

Founder Michael Dubin did a number of things to make this one of the most successful launches in history.  Dubin’s first insight was that he didn’t have to manufacture and market the razors; he could sell the blades directly.  He “borrowed” a low-cost subscription model from Netflix and now offers his monthly razor blade subscription service for as low as $1 per month.

Naturally, you’ll probably prefer their $9 per month plan with better blades.  But by the time you reach that order page, he’s already got you.  Never run out, blades shipped right to you, save up to $300 per year.  Brilliant!

Next, he used humor and the power of the web to market his product to consumers at a fraction of the price that Gillette or Schick spend on TV and in-store campaigns.  And with his subscription model, he only has to market to a customer once and then they are on auto-renew.

If Dubin only keeps his current pace (which will likely increase as word spreads), he’ll have nearly one million subscribers at the end of his first year.  Assuming $5 per month as an average, this Santa Monica-based entrepreneur will have a $60 million business in 12 months.  In an old-school, mature, commodity business.  With no marketing budget.  No salespeople, distributors, retail stores, trade promotion, supermodels, or TV commercials.

Dubin came out of nowhere and is now enjoying incredible success.  Whether you’re launching your own business, seeking that big promotion, or improving your community, you can do the same thing.  Focus on disruptive thinking.  Let your creativity shine, and bring your most potent and differentiated ideas to the forefront.  Communicate in a way that simply can’t be ignored.

Do something remarkable. Unleash the never-been-done-before.  It’s time to take your game to the razor’s edge.

My friend Les Gold, star of the hit TV series Hardcore Pawn, gave a dynamic speech this week that left the audience mesmerized.   His opening line really struck me: “How bad do you want it?”

As products of a consumer-driven society, we want just about everything.  We want fancy cars, palatial homes, and exotic travel.  We also want perfectly toned bodies, extraordinary athletic abilities, a big circle of friends, dozens of hobbies, and a close-knit family.  Our wants are limitless.

The challenge becomes prioritization and sacrifice.  As the sage childhood advice proclaims, “You can have anything you want but you can’t have everything you want.”  Knowing that human desire surpasses the 24-hour-a-day limit, choosing what’s most important is critical.  Without that focus, your energies become defuse and you end up accomplishing very little.

“How bad do you want it?”  Les gets in the audience’s face with his trademark intensity.  He’s referring to your commitment to reaching your goals and questioning the sacrifices you’re willing to make in order to win.  The most successful people do what other won’t, not what others can’t.  If you want something but refuse to do whatever it takes to get there, it’s merely fanciful dreaming.  Those that truly commit to their goals and will walk through fire to achieve them are the ones that win in good times and bad.

Les works out seven-days-a-week at 5am.  I’m sure there are days he’d rather stay in his warm bed, but he’s willing to sacrifice short-term pleasure for long-term fulfillment.  Dealing with tough customers at his pawnshop empire can be difficult and often dangerous.  But he shows up every day.  Fearless.  Driven.  Committed.

It’s so easy to cast blame when we fall short.  Between the economy, governmental regulation, fierce competition, and “not enough time in the day”, there’s no shortage of excuses.  But when you’re busy moaning, someone else is busy winning.  They’re willing to own personal responsibility for their results.  Willing to do whatever it takes, no matter how distasteful, to achieve.  Are you?

When you combine intense focus with unbendable grit and determination, nearly anything is possible.  As you set out to make your biggest mark, you will undoubtedly need to make some tough sacrifices along the way.  If it were easy, everyone would be a champion.

Are you ready to fight through rain, sleet, and snow?  Are you ready to exert discipline and focus?  Are you ready to be relentless?

How bad do you want it?