You likely know what a vampire is — an evil creature who lurks in the shadows and literally sucks the life out of unsuspecting victims. They can be hard to recognize as they often masquerade as others. When they are discovered, vampire can also be challenging to kill. While vampires evoke images of medieval castles or spooky graveyards they can also exist in business as a different form — an efficiency vampire. On the surface they may seem less nefarious than their undead counterpart, but efficiency vampires can be devastating to a business.

Businesses are typically most concerned with efficacy — are they doing the right things, how well are those things working, and are those things achieving desired business outcomes — and rightfully so. In the grand scheme of things, efficacy trumps efficiency in importance. However, once a business has learned how to achieve their objective, they must then focus their attention on how to achieve it faster and cheaper without sacrificing quality. Most businesses fail not because they can’t do something, but because they don’t operate efficiently. They can easily lulled to sleep by the seductive voice of results without realizing how much time, energy, and money they may be wasting by doing the right things in the wrong (or at least suboptimal) way.

Unlike a real vampire (we can debate that one later), it’s easier to detect their efficiency-focused cousins. They tend to speak in language such as:

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

“It’s fine the way it is.”

“But we’ve always done it that way.”

“Change is going to be hard.”

“We don’t have time to do this.”

Efficiency vampires will try to convince that everything is working is well and there’s no reason to disrupt the status quo and that attempting so would be disastrous. Ironically, the opposite is true. An inefficient business feels the pain of waste in their bottom line. They also risk frustrating their primary resource — their people — with convoluted processes which distract them from doing their job. An efficiency vampire’s impact can be pervasive and negatively affect the entire business.

So how do we stop efficiency vampires? Before we can even begin to “trim the fat” and optimize a business, we must first identify the action(s) needed to achieve maximize effectiveness and prove they can provide repeatable results. From there, we can start breaking the process into smaller parts to discover which steps can be automated, batched, sped up, streamlined, or even skipped. Understand this will take lots of iterations.

Try things in different orders. Resist the urge to make multiple changes at the same time. Doing so will make it nearly impossible to determine which change actually made a positive impact. Cut out as much as possible without sacrificing results. If you can still cut or feel you are wasting time, then you’re not done. However, recognize that efficiency is relative — there is such a thing as “good enough” because the amount of time and effort required to reach 100% efficiency may be unrealistic. After all, you still have a business to run!

Also, don’t do this in a vacuum — include your customers and business partners. Talk with them, more importantly, listen to them. Find out what their problems are and work with them to find ways that you can help them solve them. Seek to understand how inefficiencies may be impacting them — delays with quotes or deliveries, complex and confusing processes riddled with errors, frustration over doing business together. Then work backwards together focusing on ways to eliminate any roadblocks, pitfalls, or choke points that may be negatively affecting your business. Making them a part of the solution is an ideal way to not just improve your efficiency, but to build an even stronger relationship.

Finally, remember that operating at a high level of efficacy AND efficiency is the start of your journey. Efficiency vampires are patient and relentless requiring you to remain on guard at all times. Regular process reviews and gaining feedback from peers, employees, partners, and customers, will shine a light on any potential efficiency vampires lurking in the shadows before they become a problem.

I seemed destined to become an engineer. At a young age I was highly inquisitive, always seeking to understand how something worked. I would often take things apart and try to put them back together (like the time I disassembled the kitchen telephone and reassembled it in working order with parts left over — I was an efficiency expert before I even knew the term). It also helped that math and science were my two best subjects in school. Numbers and technical concepts just came easy to me. When the time came to choose a college and a major, I naturally selected engineering.

Five years later (I enjoyed my college experience more than others I suppose), I found myself applying for jobs. Any company with a posting containing “engineer” in the title received a copy of my resume. After several months of frustration, waiting, and working numerous odd jobs to stay busy and earn some money, I was hired as a network engineer. The work was interesting enough, but I never felt fulfilled. I never saw the real benefit behind my work that I could point to and say “I did that.” Eventually, I made the bold decision to change careers which brought me into sales.

Sales provided me with access to people, a wider range of problems to solve, and that illusive tangible benefit. I have been very successful in my sales career and have even been able to leverage my engineering knowledge to help technology startups bring their solutions to market. However, even this didn’t completely fulfill me. After a lot of introspection, I finally realized that I rather than focusing on what I wanted to do, I had fallen into the trap of doing what I was good at. While both engineering and sales helped me tap into what I wanted to do — help people — they weren’t exactly the manner in which I sought to do it.

I always wanted to be a writer. Even at a young age, I loved writing stories. The creative process of bringing characters, places, and events to life on a blank page felt magical. The reason I didn’t pursue writing in college or as a career was simply because I didn’t think it would pay enough to provide the life that I wanted. So rather than follow my passion, I started chasing paper — choosing professions that paid more. While this has afforded me a life and experiences that most can only dream of, it has left a hole. So I now find myself contemplating another career change to be a writer. Luckily for me, my current sales career is flexible enough so I can do both, for now.

Why do I share all of this? Quite simply because of a question I recently came across:

“If you could go back in time, what three words would you want to say to your younger self?”

There are so many things I would want to say. Find your why — that thing that gets you fired up. That thing you’re excited to wake up and do. That thing that gives you seemingly endless energy and joy. Don’t worry about money. Trust that the money will come. Trust that success — true success — is more dependent upon your happiness than your paycheck. Ignore what others think. Dare to be brave and follow your own path even when others disagree. Don’t worry how you may appear to others. The people that matter will accept and support you and those who don’t aren’t important anyway. If you don’t like the direction you’re going, turn.

And for my three words? Simple… “passion over paper.”

One of my least loved and most often ridiculed Saturday Night Live characters was Stuart Smalley. Nerdy, overweight, socially awkward, poorly dressed, lonely, desperate for acceptance, an utter misfit. By all accounts he was emotionally weak and a constant failure. His “daily affirmations” reeked of naivete, disillusionment, and sheer hopelessness. “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me?” Are you serious? Stuart Smalley lived up to his name. Small. Insignificant. Invisible. I spent more time laughing and thinking to myself “thank God that’s not me.” The sad part is… he is. I am Stuart Smalley. What I didn't realize though is that Stuart Smalley isn't a failure. He isn't weak. He’s strong. He’s courageous. In short, Stuart Smalley is a hero.

Undeterred by those who shun him and his beautiful uniqueness, Stuart Smalley remains true to himself. While we may look different than him on the outside, we all share his fear, his low self-esteem, and his desire to be loved for who we truly are. The difference is we all live a divided life: two people in one. The side we show to society to fit in and then our real selves — which ironically is the side we know so little about. Stuart isn't like that. He courageously shares his true, authentic self in all situations. If anyone fits in, it’s Stuart. We’re the true misfits for in our desire to achieve acceptance and our place in the world we've given up the one thing that’s required to be truly accepted — ourselves.

Without our true sense of self any acceptance from others would be as fake as the images we feel compelled to portray. Imagine being able to look in the mirror as Stuart does, to see our own imperfections, and to be able to accept them, own them, and love them. For it’s our imperfections that create the peculiar and distinctive nature about us all. They’re what provides splashes of color to a world of gray. Stuart understands this, yet he’s not ignorant to difficulties we all face in trying to find our way, our purpose, and our true selves in this world. He accepts this opposition head-on with something stronger. A vision of the perfect life. Stuart sees where he is going. He’s already living that life. His affirmations are a testament to his progress and a reminder of his eventual success.

Stuart’s affirmations are something we should all employ in our daily lives. The truth is, we’re all good enough, we’re all smart enough, and doggone it, people like us. We just often lack the courage to accept it.

This story is not about golf.

On September 12, 2023, I made a hole-in-one. With a single swing of my 8-iron from the 14th tee of Southern Pines Golf Club, my life changed.

At the time, that shot seemed no more special than the thousands that came before it. Landing 30-feet left of the pin, it felt more like a mishit than an intentional result. Still, it offered a chance a birdie — never a bad thing. Only this time, something was different. My ball wasn’t finished as it clearly had other ideas that day.

It started rolling towards the pin, slowly at first, then picking up speed. I yelled at my ball from 159-yards away to get closer (as most golfers do, often with unwanted results). Today, my ball obliged and continued rolling closer and closer. I initially thought this might lead to an easier chance at making birdie. However, with each rotation of my ball, I realized I was thinking too small and that something even greater might be possible. Perhaps today was going to be my day.

I stared at my ball watching it roll for what felt like an eternity (which is about 7 seconds in golf). Then just as sudden as my swing which started this drama unfolding in front of me, my ball disappeared. Ask any golfer and they’ll share a story about thinking they made a hole-in-one only to find out the ball was still 15-feet away or that it rolled off the green. I quickly dismissed those thoughts as this time felt different.

I drove up to the green, jumped out of the cart and looked across the large expanse of green — no ball. Sheepishly, I walked towards the flag feeling all sorts of emotions — anticipation, doubt, hope, and anxiety. Standing alongside the hole, I peeked down and saw my ball sitting innocently at the bottom of the cup. Instantly, my flood of emotions were replaced with sheer joy. I screamed at the top of my lungs (not typical golf etiquette, but acceptable under the circumstances).

After the requisite photos, videos, celebratory texts, and phone calls, I continued my round. As you can imagine, those last four holes were a blur. It wasn’t until later that night when thinking back on the day that I realized something was different… I was different. Sure, I made a hole-in-one, but there was more to it.

My shot was far from perfect as golf shots go, but in that moment, it was the perfect swing, at the perfect time, in the perfect place, with the perfect outcome. Some might call that luck. I prefer to think of it another way as best summed up by Bagger Vance in the movie “The Legend of Bagger Vance”:

“There’s only one shot that’s in perfect harmony with the field… One shot that’s his, authentic shot, and that shot is gonna choose him… There’s a perfect shot out there tryin’ to find each and every one of us… All we got to do is get ourselves out of its way, to let it choose us.”

That Tuesday morning on the golf course, that’s exactly what I did. With a clear mind and an open heart, I allowed that perfect shot to choose me. As I told you, this story is not about golf. While a making a hole-in-one is certainly golf-related, there is so much more to it. For me, that hole-in-one represents the infinite possibilities that surround us and how with a single swing, they can change our perspective on everything. There are hole-in-one opportunities all around — not just in golf, but in life. That’s what I’m constantly reminded of every time I think about that day. That’s what this story is about. How getting out of our own way and allowing things to come together in the right way at the right time can forever change our lives.

We often feel that we must make our successes — often with sheer effort and determination. What I’ve come to realize is that life is far better and easier, if we create situations or circumstances where things can happen and simply allow them to happen in their own time. I didn’t make that ball go into that hole. There’s too much to a golf swing to chalk it up to luck. I believe it was destined to happen, that it was my time.

How can we take a similar mindset to our work? Our personal lives? How often does life feel forced? How often do we think small regarding potential outcomes, failing to realize the infinite possibilities that are available to us if we only have the courage and mindset to think bigger? My views on everything are forever changed by that day on the course. Where I once thought only of playing it safe or hoping to not make a mistake, I now focus on just being in the moment and visualizing success in all that I do. I may not know how I’ll get there, but I know — and feel — that it’s possible.