"But over the years, I’ve realized that my so-called laziness is actually a huge advantage."

"By cobbling together a bunch of ideas from people much smarter than I am, I’ve worked out a system I call Lazy Leadership that I use to run my companies."

"it’s about taking a step back, leaning on your team, and becoming an observer instead of an active participant in your business."

"Entrepreneurship is really just a fancy word for delegation. It’s a continuous process of removing yourself from the equation step-by-step and empowering your team to do the things that they do best."

"First, you cut out the middle man (your boss) and start working for yourself."

"Finally, if you want, you can hire a CEO who will run the whole company for you while you sit on the board."

"Best of all, I got to empower a great group of people to do the best work of their careers while I focused on building the machine (more on that later)."

"Some entrepreneurs never break through the delegation barrier and get stuck along the way. They try hiring someone, and when that person doesn’t behave exactly like they would, they jump in and take over."

"“If your business depends on you, you don’t own a business, you have a job. And it’s the worst job in the world because you’re working for a lunatic.”"

"Henry Ford didn’t build cars, he built factories. To me, a great leader’s job is to build a machine that produces a product."

"Many CEO’s forget this and get stuck in sales, marketing, product — whatever part of the business they love — while they ignore the bigger picture. An exceptional leader builds a company that functions without them."

"The secret to his success? According to him, it’s that he thinks about his business as a machine that he engineers to produce the outcomes he wants."

"Inspired by Ray, I now think of my companies as machines. I determine the result that I want, design a machine that will produce the result, then figure out what sort of people I need as part of it."

"I swapped others into the roles that required travel, and the business grew because I was no longer the limiting factor."

"Happy former clients to build and maintain our reputation."

"Demand from new clients to pay us for our services."

"Talented designers and developers to build apps for our clients."

"Today, I only spend my time on things that I’m both good at and that nobody else can do."

"Human Resources to recruit talented designers and developers, keep them happy, and maintain our culture."

"Client Relations to build relationships with our clients, understand and anticipate their needs, and make sure we exceed their expectations."

"Business Development to find great new companies for us to work with and sell them on the value of our services."

"Building Process"

"Getting to know our clients and building trust is key in order for me to be able to build a machine that can solve for their goals and deliver great work."

"Reinforcing Culture"

"Now that there are almost 100 people at MetaLab, culture becomes a whole other beast. Suddenly it has to be written out and shared with stories and core values, something I never thought we’d do."

"It’s giving your team a framework for decision making"

"A job that doesn’t feel like a job: We want to give our team the freedom and autonomy to work when and how they please."

"A focus on craftsmanship: We take a breath before we ship and ask “Is this the best we can do?"

"No jargon or buzzwords: We think jargon destroys companies. It’s designed to make one person feel superior, while the other feels less than and nods along."

"No assholes allowed: This one is pretty self-explanatory. No political climbers, bullies, yellers, or machiavellian BS."

"People over profits: We’d rather break even than run a company that isn’t enjoyable to work at."

"Be honest, not perfect: We all make mistakes and have flaws, and we should be comfortable owning our mistakes and knowing it’s ok to mess up once in awhile."

"We hadn’t taken the time to think about the recipe that made the good projects work."

"In one sentence, how will we know we’ve been successful?"

"Combined with our own values it helps ensure that we’re following a rough recipe and it has helped us significantly increase our hit rate."

"Tracking Our Results"

"Unfortunately, I quickly learned that once you scale up, your bank balance doesn’t tell you much."

"These were all things I was on top of when we were small, but as we’ve grown there have been times when I’ve realized all sorts of shitty things had happened on my watch."

"These are the 10 metrics I track on a weekly basis, that allow me to quickly figure out where we’re slipping and where I need to focus my attention:"

"Team Utilization: Do people have enough work?"

"30/60/90 Day Team Utilization: Do we have enough work coming up?"

"New Business Pipeline: How much potential new work do we have?"

"Cash in Bank: How many months can we run without additional cash?"

"Take a Step Back"

"Instead of getting stuck making the pies, I’m writing the recipes, and that lets me focus on growing and improving my business instead of trying to maintain it."

"You can design a machine, target a result, plug in the right people, and tweak it until it spits out the result you want."

"Lazy Leadership isn’t really about being lazy. It’s about spending time on what matters and what you’re good at, then leaving everything else to your team."

"Giving up on the idea that you have to drive yourself into the ground in order to run a successful company, and thinking about your business as a machine that you design and optimize, instead of becoming a worn out cog within."

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