Oh how I loathe the phone.
Maybe it’s my introverted personality. Or my awareness level of how much time gets wasted on the horn. Or that it kinda drains the energy out of me (on the rare occasions where I agree to do hour phone consults, I sometimes get bad headaches and drop off into a deep, coma–like sleep afterwards).
There’s nothing I’d rather NOT do than sit on the phone.
There are exceptions to this, of course.
Like if I’m interviewing someone, or someone is interviewing me.
That’s usually pretty fun.
But generally, phones suck.
I want nothing to do with them.
And to paraphrase the great Weird Al Yankovic, I’d rather jump naked on a huge pile of thumbtacks than spend one more minute on the phone!
Anyway, why should you care?
Probably, you shouldn’t care.
Unless, of course, you’re one of these strangers who I have never met before, who likes leaving voice mails with no details about who they are or what they want (instead of emailing the details of their request like a normal introvert would).
I’m talking about voice mails like:
“Hey Ben, my name is so-and-so, give me a call back…”
No context.
No “reason why.”
Right.
I don’t want sound like a jerk, but that just ain’t happening.
Not know-how.
Not no-way.
It’s not just because of the reasons I cited above about my hatred of the phone, either. The other (more important) reason is because TIME is the one commodity I guard most aggressively. Heck, I barely have time to call my parents each week, much less a goo-roo fanboy looking to do a JV or for free advice. And I’d get nothing done if I called back everyone who asks to “chat just for a few minutes.”
And you know what?
I HIGHLY suggest you do the same.
Guard your time like a dragon hoarding treasure.
Be stingy with it.
Cling to it.
Breathe fire on anyone who would take it from you.
And never, ever give it away lightly.
Ben Settle
P.S. For another lesson about “time vampires“ (and how to make sure they never sink their sharp fangs into your soft neck) check out this email at:
