Proper Frameworks for Proper Performance
- May 6
- 3 min read
By Bill Vaughan
Founder and Co-owner of FnD Piers
Hello, my name is Bill Vaughan, and I am the Founder and Co-owner of FnD Piers. If you think productivity is about finding the right color-coded calendar app or sitting in a circle sharing your feelings, you’re already on the struggle bus. Most people treat professional growth like a spa day. In reality, business is an absolute animal. It’s what I like to call chewing on glass and walking into the abyss.
If you want to survive the abyss and actually add value, you’ve got to stop being lazy with your time and start being Fast and Dependable. Here is the unfiltered truth about what it actually takes to build a system that works.
The Only System That Matters: Start, Stop, Continue
People love to overcomplicate things. They build these complex systems that require a PhD to understand, and then they wonder why their projects are falling apart. At FnD Piers, we keep it simple because simple survives when you’re out in the mud.
Every Monday morning, we ask three questions: What do we need to start doing? What do we need to stop doing? And what are we going to keep (continue) doing?
If you can be disciplined about that, actually writing it down and then doing it, you’ll move faster than 90% of your competition. Most of your productivity is probably just fluff that needs to be stopped. If it isn't adding margin or saving time, it’s worthless and it’s killing your business.
Designing a Routine: The "Next Day" Mentality
I wrote the book Next Day Helicals because speed is the ultimate competitive advantage. If a homeowner has a house falling into a hole, they don’t want a three-week plan, they want a solution yesterday.
To design an effective routine, you have to adopt a next day mentality. You aren't just managing today, you are drilling through the concrete of tomorrow's problems before they even arrive.
The Cup of Coffee and the Cattle Prod: You have to be both to yourself. Be the partner who supports the work, but don't be afraid to use the prod when you start dragging your feet.
The Truck Test: Look at your environment. If your office or your vehicle looks like a rolling dumpster fire, your routine is a lie. If a man can’t take care of his own equipment, he sure as hell isn’t going to take care of a complex project.
Strategic Habits: Iron Sharpens Iron
You’ve heard the proverb, but most people forget that for iron to sharpen iron, you’ve got to get that metal to 800 degrees and beat it. Growth isn't comfortable.
The most strategic habit you can develop is personal discipline. If a man can’t take care of himself, he can’t take care of anybody else. If you’re unhealthy, that unhealthiness eventually gets on the rest of your organization. It slows down the machinery.
Take care of your health, take care of your mind, and be ruthless about who you let into your circle. I look for quality humans, or people who show up on time and don't make excuses. If you surround yourself with people on the struggle bus, don’t be surprised when you end up in the ditch with them.
The Bottom Line
Nothing is going to teach you to ride the bull like riding the bull. You can read every business book on the shelf, but until you get bucked off and get back up with some dirt in your teeth, you haven't learned a thing.
I’ve found that you have to stop talking about systems and start being disciplined. If you take care of the project’s health, the project will take care of you.
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