by CEOs who seem genuinely happy , but that wasn ’ t my experience for my first seven years as an employee of Acuff Ideas , LLC .
I was the one with the stopwatch on my desk to monitor bathroom breaks . I was the one who tried to listen to twenty-five educational podcasts a month . I was the one who would dock myself ninety seconds if I went to the kitchen to grab a coffee just to make sure I wasn ’ t stealing time from — who ? Me ? The company ? None of it made any sense , but there really wasn ’ t much of a mystery . I was a terrible boss because I was listening to terrible soundtracks .
I kept hearing things like , “ You ’ ve got to get ahead . Other people are doing so much better than you . If you take a ten-minute break , you ’ ll lose all your momentum . You should be doing so much more . This whole thing could fall apart at any second .”
This situation wasn ’ t new to me . I ’ d wrestled with this bad-boss idea for years . My wife pointed that out when I first started the company , but it felt too tangled and difficult to really do anything about . It wasn ’ t until I first started exploring my overthinking that things began to change . It wasn ’ t overnight or instant . How could it be ? You can quit any terrible job and leave a bad boss in the dust unless you work at home and the boss is you .
How would I storm out after turning in my notice to me ? How would I flip myself off ? How would I peel away in my car in a blaze of glory in my own driveway ?
The process of becoming a better boss wasn ’ t that dramatic . I just started looking at my soundtracks related to work . There were a dozen different ones playing , but they were all saying roughly the same thing : “ The only way to be successful is to be hard on yourself , and if that means you ’ re a bad boss , so be it .”
I ’ d given that approach to running my business the old college try for seven straight years , and that felt like enough . When I retire old soundtracks , I often say out loud , “ That ’ s enough of doing it that way . Let ’ s try something different and see what happens .”
I ’ d spent fifteen years working in corporations before I started my own business . I had good bosses and bad bosses . This is going to surprise you , but I preferred to work for the good ones . I had more fun , got more done , and actually looked forward to work when I had a good boss . Crazy , right ?
That afternoon in the driveway , I asked myself a simple question : “ What would the best boss do right now ?” The answer was not difficult to find . In that exact situation , the best boss would say , “ You ’ ve been out of town for a few days . It ’ s five o ’ clock . Go home to your family ! You already worked a really full day .”
That was easy to figure out because I just imagined the opposite of what the worst boss would do . And you can do the same thing right now . If you want to create a new sound-track , pick a broken one that ’ s loud and flip it upside down . You ’ ve identified a few in this book . Look at those and imagine what listening to the opposite of all those soundtracks might feel like . You don ’ t have to brainstorm or dream . Just imagine a coin . One side of it is full of thoughts that aren ’ t true , helpful , or kind . If you flipped it
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