Stealing Minutes: My Formula for Success
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What a year it’s been. This marks my 50th blog post of 2025, and when I look back, it feels like both a blur and a breakthrough. This year, I published a best‑selling book on Amazon, twice ranked in the top 100 in its categories. I launched a Shopify store to sell that book and new branded merchandise. I helped a friend bring her family’s single‑origin Brazilian coffee to market. I spoke at two professional events, filmed podcasts, hiked Rim to Rim across the Grand Canyon, and finished my second 29029 Everesting challenge.
When people hear that list, they often ask, “How do you do all of that?”
The truth: I steal minutes from every day. Success doesn’t come from finding endless time, it comes from owning the minutes you already have.
What Success Looks Like for Me
Everyone throws around the word success, but it’s deeply personal. For some, it’s scaling startups or hitting financial benchmarks. For me, success means filling my life with what matters most, family, fitness, sobriety and creative growth.
My non‑negotiables keep me grounded no matter how packed the calendar looks:
1. Family and friends come first. If my kids have a sporting event, I’m there. If a friend asks me to grab dinner or go on a trip, I say yes. Human connection is fuel.
2. Physical fitness fuels mental performance. I train with a HiiT coach twice a week, hike whenever possible, and play competitive golf and platform tennis for fun. Movement sharpens my edge.
3. Sobriety keeps me clear‑minded. I don’t drink, there’s just no room for hangovers or fog. Every day deserves my full attention.
These are the habits that power me through building businesses, writing books, and supporting others on their entrepreneurial journeys. I don’t chase balance; I build discipline around what fills my soul; thank you Jesse Itzler for this analogy.
The Success Equation: Time Stewardship
There are 1,440 minutes in a day. Let’s account for them.
· Sleep: about 480 minutes (8 hours)
· Basic routines and meals: roughly 120 minutes
· Work: 480 minutes or more
That leaves about 360 minutes, six precious hours, to use intentionally. Now think about how much of that time gets swallowed by scrolling, streaming, and distraction. Studies show adults spend more than three hours daily on their phones. That’s half your personal growth time…gone.
Success starts with the courage to audit your minutes. Break down how you spend them. Then steal a few back. You don’t need a major life overhaul, just consistent micro‑moments of focus. Ten minutes to write. Thirty to walk. Fifteen to check in with a friend instead of checking apps.
The most successful people don’t have more hours; they have fewer wasted ones.
How AI Tools Help Me Reclaim Time
This year, I leaned into AI for entrepreneurs, and it transformed how I work. AI doesn’t just accelerate productivity; it gives time back for the things that make success sustainable.
· Perplexity helps me research faster, summarize complex topics, and gather insights before client calls.
· Durable simplifies my digital operations, building websites, proposals, and workflows in minutes.
· Brandwell elevates my brand with design and storytelling support, keeping my content professional without hours lost in creative rabbit holes.
These tools act like a virtual time‑multipliers, not replacing thought, but removing friction. Every hour I automate or optimize through AI is another hour I can reinvest in health, family, and creativity.
If success is about time ownership, AI is the modern entrepreneur’s assistant, helping you protect what matters most.
The Power of Compounding Minutes
People assume big results come from big efforts. The truth is more subtle: small minutes compound like interest. This blog, my best‑selling book, my business, they all grew from stealing minutes early in the morning, late at night, or between calls.
Each rep in the gym, each paragraph written, each hike through nature built not just momentum, but meaning. Success feels less like sprinting toward a milestone and more like walking upward, step by step, toward a fully realized life.
When you fill your minutes with purpose, success stops feeling like a destination and starts becoming a daily rhythm.
A Year of Gratitude and Growth
Fifty blog posts later, my definition of success feels clearer than ever. It’s not about doing more. It’s about doing the right things and with intention.
This year, I started companies, collaborated with talented teams, helped friends launch new ventures, and rediscovered how much joy writing can bring. Each project, each post, each “yes” has been a reminder that success isn’t found, it’s built one minute at a time.
So as this year closes, here’s the personal formula that’s worked for me:
Steal minutes. Spend them on what fills your soul. Use AI to free your time. And measure success not by what you achieve, but by how deeply you live.
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