We woke up early, our cups of black coffee emptied, but conversations full.  The seven of us warmed up in the cold gym, snow melting just outside the opened garage door.

If you saw us, you might wonder how we ended up together.  We’re an odd mix of founders, to be honest.  We met as part of a mastermind and decided to meet up in real life in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

Who are we?  Wholesale clothing operations, a marketplace for medical care, menu software for chefs, and—amongst others—one of the top-rated fitness podcast hosts.

Adam Schafer built his career as a competitor, trainer, and fitness expert (later becoming an investor and podcast host of MindPump), so we convinced him to give us a session.

I assumed he’d take a page from Schwarzenegger’s book and yell, “I’ne gohing to pahhmp you ahhp!”

Crazy enough, Adam said the opposite, “Do as little as possible to elicit the most amount of change.”

Our workout consisted of perfecting our form, alignment, and proper positioning.  Adam reminded us that if we don’t master the basics, we won’t get the results we want.  Or, worse, we could make a mistake and get hurt.

As each of us stepped to the squat rack, we reminded each other to DO LESS.

The biggest lesson, of course, wasn’t mastering the basics of a workout, but how the same principle applied to business.

How many times have I powered through, busted down walls, and gritted my teeth for endless hours in the name of progress, when what I should have done was DO LESS.

• When in doubt, go back to basics.
• When in fear, go back to basics.
• When in high-flying success, go back to basics.

In a constant barrage of more-more-more, it was a pleasant reminder that less always leads to more.

As I’m gearing up for an exciting launch, my mantra has become DO LESS, GET MORE.  I hope you say the same.

Back to basics,

j*