"Beware the barrenness of a busy life." — Socrates

"The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city. — Ecclesiastes 10:15

Before Blockbuster was a joke, it was a king.

In 2000, Blockbuster was an empire. Nine thousand stores. Sixty-five thousand employees. Billions in revenue. Everyone knew what "Make it a Blockbuster night" meant.

That same year, a scrappy DVD-by-mail startup called Netflix was hemorrhaging cash. Reed Hastings flew to Dallas to meet with Blockbuster CEO John Antioco. His pitch: a partnership. Netflix would run Blockbuster's online brand; Blockbuster would promote Netflix in stores. The asking price? Fifty million dollars.

Antioco's team laughed them out of the room.

On paper, Blockbuster had every advantage — the market share, the brand recognition, the real estate, and the cash flow. They were opening new locations, optimizing store layouts, running national promotions, and renegotiating late fee structures. They were in constant Motion.

Netflix was doing something Blockbuster refused to consider. They were building a recommendation algorithm. They were testing a subscription model that eliminated late fees entirely. They were engineering a system that would eventually remove the need for a physical store altogether.

Blockbuster was running faster — on a treadmill. Netflix was building a road.

By 2010, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy. Today, one single Blockbuster remains — a nostalgia museum in Bend, Oregon. Netflix is worth over $250 billion.

What killed Blockbuster?

Most people say they failed to innovate. That's true, but it's not the whole story. Blockbuster didn't die because they were sitting still. They were incredibly busy. Executives worked long hours. The company was constantly launching initiatives, expanding into new markets, and tweaking their model.

The problem wasn't a lack of activity. The problem was that all of that activity had no trajectory. They lost Momentum and settled for Motion — and they never noticed the difference because they were exhausted at the end of every day.

This is the fourth Core Commitment: Momentum is greater than Motion.

What is Momentum and Motion?

MOMENTUM is the measurable result of healthy systems—compounding growth that makes each next step easier than the last. Momentum is not just speed—you can run full speed on a treadmill and never leave the room. Instead, it’s direction multiplied by effort.

Momentum is what happens when your systems start working harder than you do.

MOTION is effort without trajectory—energy spent that produces activity but not advancement. Motion is not hustle—hustlers get results through sheer force of will. Instead, it’s the dangerous counterfeit of hustle where busyness replaces business.

Motion masquerades as momentum because exhaustion feels like evidence of progress.

Why Are We So Busy?

Before we can kill Motion, we have to understand why we are addicted to it. You don't accidentally fill every hour of your day with low-value work. Something is driving you to the treadmill.

The answer is a three-headed monster: Culture, Clout, and Character.

• Culture. We live in a society that treats busyness as a virtue. Think about the most common greeting in American business: "How are you? Are you staying busy?" We can’t wait to say yes. We are eager to show proof that we are important, in the fight, and serious about our work. Here is the hard truth: busyness is not a badge. It is a bandage. It covers the wound but it does not heal it. And the longer you wear it, the easier it is to forget you are bleeding.
• Clout. Busyness doesn't just satisfy the people around you. It feeds something darker inside you: the need to feel important. Every meeting on your calendar is proof that people need you. Every fire you put out is proof the business would collapse without you. Every late night is a story you get to tell. Clout is Ego wearing a productivity mask. It doesn't care if the work mattered. It cares that the work was seen.
• Character. This is the one nobody talks about. We crave validation — that is human. But the other side of that coin is the thing we refuse to admit: we are terrified of rejection. Busywork is safe. Nobody is going to critique your inbox management or leave a one-star review of your filing system. But launch a new offer? Record a video with your actual ideas? Write a book? That work can fail publicly. So we hide behind safe, familiar, invisible tasks — not because we are lazy, but because we are afraid. Motion is the coward's refuge. It lets you feel exhausted without ever having to be brave.

Culture tells you to be busy. 
Clout rewards you for being busy. 
Character hides behind being busy.

Sovereign Leaders don't get to hide. 
The mission is too important, and Motion is too expensive.

Momentum Builds, Motion Burns

Momentum and Motion don't just feel different–they are force multipliers that work in opposite directions. To see it clearly, consider what happens when the same event hits two different businesses — one operating in Momentum, the other trapped in Motion.

When Opportunity Knocks

You land a massive new client. This is the break you have been working for.

In Motion: You can't celebrate. You immediately panic about fulfillment. You don't have a system to onboard them, so you scramble. You pull time from your existing clients to serve the new one. Quality drops across the board. Your sanity (or your team) stretches to the breaking point. The big win becomes a bigger fire. The opportunity exposed every crack in your operation. The win becomes a loss.

In Momentum: Your onboarding system absorbs the new client. Your existing clients don't feel a thing. The revenue compounds because your delivery process was already built to scale. You don't work harder — your systems work harder. The big win stays a win. 

When an Obstacle Hits

Your best employee quits. No warning. No transition plan.

In Motion: Everything they touched falls apart. You realize their knowledge lived in their head, not in a system. You spend the next three months doing their job, your job, and recruiting a replacement. You are now the most expensive employee in your own business. 

In Momentum: It hurts, but it doesn't break. The processes were documented. The responsibilities were assigned to roles, not personalities. You grieve the loss, hire a replacement, and the system trains them. The business doesn't skip a beat.

Here is the pattern

Momentum multiplies the good and minimizes the bad.
Motion minimizes the good and multiplies the bad.

Same opportunity. Same obstacle. Completely different outcomes.
The difference was the system that was waiting for it.

Just Do Something, See What Sticks

Right about now, you are probably feeling the urge to fix something. You just saw what Motion costs you. Your brain is already scanning for the next move — a new tool, a new hire, a new strategy.

Stop.

That impulse — the one that says "just do something, see what sticks" — is the exact instinct that keeps you trapped. 

I know this because I fall for it too.

I love tools. I love figuring out how they work, testing every feature, and then abandoning them for the next shiny object. I have used every project management app under the sun: ClickUp, Wunderlist (now Microsoft To Do), Asana, Monday — the rabbit hole goes deep. Don't get me started on AI. I have subscriptions to ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, and Claude. I could open a software museum with the tools I have tried and discarded.

And every time, I justify the time sink: "This is fun. I'm only doing this in my downtime." And sure, I have a legitimate business need to stay informed. But "staying informed" has a way of becoming a sickness — a delusion that all this time and energy is well spent simply because it feels productive.

It isn't. It is Motion with a guilt-free label.

One business owner once confessed to me, "I've been experimenting for five years, but I don't have any traction." Five years of just doing something. Five years of expensive Motion that didn’t move the needle.

"Just do something" is only good advice for couch potatoes — any movement is better than another lap around the kitchen. 

But you’re not on the couch. 
You are running a business.

The Momentum Is in the (Right) Metrics

You are probably tracking your progress. The question is whether you are reading the right scoreboard.

There are two kinds of metrics: Vanity Metrics and Sanity Metrics.

Vanity Metrics make you feel good. They are the numbers you screenshot for social media — followers, website traffic, hours at the desk, inbox zero. They record and reward activity.

Sanity Metrics tell you the truth you need to hear. They are the numbers that reveal whether your business is actually healthy — profit margin, revenue per client, repeat customer rate. They record and reward results.

Imagine a leader who was celebrating a record revenue month. His team was exhausted but proud. When I asked him to pull up his profit margin, the room went quiet. He had generated more revenue than ever before — and netted less than the month prior. He had worked harder, spent more, and stretched his team to the breaking point to make less money.

His Vanity Metrics said he was winning. 
His Sanity Metrics said he was bleeding.

To move from Motion to Momentum, you must ignore the noise and obsess over these five Sanity Metrics:

1. Net Profit Margin—The Bottom Line.
   This is what stays in the bank after every single bill—including your own market-rate salary—is paid. Revenue is just a number that passes through your hands; it is how much you keep that determines your freedom. If this isn't positive, you are a volunteer, not an owner.
2. Gross Profit Margin—The Unit Reality.
   The gap between what it costs to fulfill the work (labor and materials) and what you charge the client. This proves whether your service is actually worth providing or if you are simply staying busy for the sake of being busy.
3. Operating Cash Flow—The Survival Metric.
   The actual timing of money moving in versus money moving out. You can be "profitable" on paper and still go out of business because your bank account is empty on Tuesday. If the oxygen stops, the mission dies.
4. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)—The Growth Price.
   How much does it cost you to win a new client? Add up every dollar you spend on marketing, ads, and sales effort, then divide by the number of clients you actually closed. If that number makes you flinch, your growth strategy is just expensive Motion. And if you don’t know that number, you’re gambling.
5. Return on Investment (ROI)—The System Multiplier.
   For every dollar you invest in your business, how many come back? This is the metric that separates a system from a money pit. A broken system eats your investment. A healthy system multiplies it.

When you see warning lights here, that's your sign that you have a system (or two) to fix.
The Momentum is in the metrics. But only if you are reading the right ones.

How To Eliminate Your Busywork 

Let me be clear: this is not a time management tool. You have tried the planners, the apps, the color-coded calendars. You have read the books on productivity, hooked by the hope of being organized. 

Some of them worked … for a week. 

Here is why: every time management system on the planet assumes that the work on your list deserves to be there. It helps you do more things faster. That is just organized Motion.

The Sovereign Filter

The Sovereign Filter doesn’t help you get more done. It helps you stop doing work that does not matter. This is not a productivity hack. It is a Motion detector.

The Sovereign Filter only works if you know your business. If you don’t, you’re just re-arranging your to-do list.

For me, my Important Work boils down to two things: Serve and Create. I’m only building momentum when I serve my clients and create content that helps business leaders who are stuck. When I’m out of these lanes, I am wasting my time. I am all Motion without Momentum.

As you work through the Sovereign Filter, keep your Important Work front and center.
The Sovereign Filter has two parts: The Monday Gatekeeper and The Friday Mirror.

The Monday Gatekeeper

Before you start your week, run every task, meeting, and commitment through five filters:

• Comfort: Does this work actually matter or am I doing it because it is familiar?
• Consequence: Will something important break if I do not do this work?
• Compound: Will this work still be producing results in 90 days?
• Cost: What am I NOT doing by choosing to do this?
• Captain: Am I the only one who can do this or should it be handed off to a person or system?

If the work doesn't survive at least three of the five, it doesn't make the cut. Delegate it, automate it, or delete it.

The Friday Mirror

Truth is greater than your Ego. At the end of the week, don’t ask "Was I busy?" Instead, ask the harder questions: 

• What work was immediately effective? What fruit did you see?
• What work might be effective? What seeds did you plant?
• What work was ineffective? What weeds did you water?

The Monday Gatekeeper tells you what to do. 
The Friday Mirror tells you the truth about what you did.

Over time, the Friday Mirror sharpens the Monday Gatekeeper. You start recognizing your patterns — the familiar work you keep choosing, the delegation you keep avoiding, the Motion that keeps sneaking onto your calendar disguised as Momentum.

Before We Move On

You cannot afford to be busy anymore. Motion is fruitless work masquerading as momentum — and it is costing you your time, your energy, and your profit.

At this point, many leaders who struggle with creating healthy systems get a little defensive and dismissive:

• "I'm a visionary—systems bog me down."
• "I'm innovative—systems box me in."
• “I’m a hustler—systems slow me down.”
• "I'm a creator—systems hollow me out.”
• “I’m intuitive—systems ignore my gut.”

You fear that engineering your business—standardizing your genius—will turn your mission into a corporate machine.

That is a lie.

In the next chapter, we will dismantle the myth that creativity requires chaos. Structure and innovation aren’t enemies. When your systems serve your mission, your best work finally has room to breathe.

Stop moving. Start multiplying.