Book SummaryClockwork, by Mike Michalowicz

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Clockwork

For most small business owners, taking a four-week vacation is inconceivable. Overwhelmed with the hands-on work of running their company’s daily operations, many entrepreneurs feel too burned out to achieve work-life balance—let alone take a vacation.

However, in Clockwork, entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz claims a four-week vacation is within reach for small business owners. To achieve it, they must abandon their typical, hands-on approach to leading their business. He argues that entrepreneurs can avoid burnout, achieve work-life balance, and revitalize their businesses by committing to a hands-off approach. A hands-off entrepreneur trains their employees to take care of the hands-on work of daily operations. This enables the entrepreneur to instead play the role of...

Clockwork Summary The Problem: Entrepreneur Burnout

According to Michalowicz, burnout plagues many entrepreneurs. Burnout is when stress drains you of your physical, emotional, and mental energy. Over time, burnout leaves entrepreneurs too depleted to run a successful business. We’ll begin this section by understanding why so many entrepreneurs burn out. Then, we’ll explore why entrepreneurs’ usual solution to burnout—maximizing their productivity—doesn’t actually help.

Why Entrepreneurs Suffer From Burnout

Michalowicz argues that entrepreneurs suffer from burnout because they run their businesses using a hands-on approach. Hands-on entrepreneurs involve themselves in most aspects of their company’s daily operations. This includes everyday tasks (such as corresponding with customers) and related decisions (such as when to proactively contact customers). Even entrepreneurs who delegate daily tasks to their employees are hands-on, since these entrepreneurs still make most of the decisions behind those tasks.

(Shortform note: Research reveals that entrepreneurs experience a unique form of burnout,...

Clockwork Summary The Solution: Become a Hands-Off Visionary

Instead of wasting their time on productivity tricks, entrepreneurs need a solution to burnout that addresses its real cause: their hands-on approach. Michalowicz argues that entrepreneurs can avoid burnout and revitalize their businesses by becoming hands-off visionaries. This type of entrepreneur is hands-off because they train their employees to independently handle daily operations. They’re visionaries because their role is to keep an eye on their company’s issues, envision new possibilities, and make improvements to their company’s framework.

(Shortform note: In The Dichotomy of Leadership, authors Willink and Babin argue that a hands-off approach works for any form of leadership. Like Michalowicz, they advocate for an approach in which you empower your team to assume greater responsibility so you can focus on overseeing big-picture concerns. Their argument that this style...

Clockwork Summary Phase 1: Build a Framework That Emphasizes Motivation

Michalowicz shares that the first phase of becoming a hands-off entrepreneur is building a business framework that emphasizes motivation. A motivating framework prepares you to become a hands-off visionary because it inspires you to revitalize your business and motivates your employees to work independently. In this section, we’ll describe three goals you can work toward to achieve a motivating business framework.

Goal 1: Determine Your Mission

First, Michalowicz claims that you must identify your mission: an ambition that both delights you and improves others’ lives. This mission must delight you so you look forward to working. Furthermore, the promise of improving others’ lives will motivate you and your employees to do your best work. For example, your mission behind Storyline could be to help families share their stories with each other.

(Shortform note: Committing yourself to improving others’ lives through your business may also support your general happiness. In The Courage to Be Disliked, Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga argue that [devoting yourself to improving others’...

Clockwork Summary Phase 2: Release Responsibility to Your Team

During the second phase of becoming a hands-off visionary, you transition out of your hands-on role and train your employees to master their new tasks. In this section, we’ll share three steps for releasing your responsibilities to your team.

Step 1: Inform Your Team About Your Plan

First, Michalowicz claims you should expect your colleagues will need support understanding the reason and purpose of your transition. Your team may be unfamiliar with a hands-off style of leadership. Use proactive, open communication to ease their transition. One way to accomplish this is to describe how your hands-off approach benefits them: It empowers them to attain valuable, hands-on job experience and enjoy autonomy in their roles.

(Shortform note: Your employees may worry that in your new hands-off role you’ll be less involved in their professional growth in the name of empowering them with extra autonomy. The authors of First, Break All the Rules recommend you stay involved in your employees’ growth by [scheduling semi-annual meetings with each of...

Clockwork Summary Phase 3: Commit to Your Role as Hands-Off Visionary

Now that you’ve shed your hands-on work, in this final phase, you’ll step into your role of visionary, overseeing and improving your business’s framework. We’ll begin this section by exploring how to oversee your business and improve its systems. Then, we’ll describe how to enjoy your newfound work-life balance by taking a four-week vacation.

Step 1: Establish Metrics and Benchmarks

Part of your role as a hands-off visionary is to oversee your business. Michalowicz claims you should establish metrics that clearly indicate whether your business is meeting its goals. Metrics allow you to quickly notice early signs of issues in your business framework so you can address them before they develop into crises.

For example, imagine you need to establish a metric to measure Storyline customers’ satisfaction. You ask each Storyline customer to give your service a one-to-five-star rating after your company delivers their book. You establish your customer’s average star rating as your metric.

According to the author, each metric also needs a benchmark: a numeric cutoff that shows whether your metric indicates success. For example, a benchmark for the aforementioned...

Shortform Exercise: Make a Plan to Become More Hands-Off

Reflect on how your current approach to leading your business compares to the ideal approach of a hands-off visionary, and make a plan for moving toward this ideal.

Is your approach to leading your business closer to a hands-on approach or a hands-off approach? Describe the evidence that you’re closer to one approach or the other. (Signs your approach is more hands-on include involvement in daily operations; operating in crisis mode; handling most decisions; and experiencing burnout. Signs your approach is more hands-off include employees handling most or all daily operations and decisions; being able to take days off work; and a large portion of your work involving overseeing metrics.)