A 10K Life - Inspired by Khe Hy
There is a thought-provoking concept I came across some time ago: the $10,000 per hour work by Khe Hy. There is something to explore there. Whether from a professional or personal life perspective, $10K/hour activities are high leverage and high skill. That makes the difference. Leverage is your ability to understand what is truly essential in your professional/personal life and use that to your advantage. “Optimizing, automating, and delegating” is a common leverage framework in the business world. By defining clear processes and procedures, and then automating them, you free up time and set up a scalable system that can multiply in capabilities over time, while you don’t need to use your time to manage it. But leverage is only one component of the “$10K work” framework. The other component is skill. When you have high leverage and high skill, that’s a $10K activity.
The name “$10K per hour work” may be deceiving. This framework is not about earning more money. The monetary value is a metaphorical way of representing the real, long-term significance of decisions that have high leverage and high skill. $10K activities are those that we know are important but not urgent. Those types of things are tough to break down and act upon. Often, there is resistance. “$10K work” may not feel productive in the moment. It does not foster dopamine release like doing $10 work (e.g., replying to emails in urgency to free up your inbox as if your life depended on it). Focusing a significant percentage of your time on $10K activities means making space for what’s essential. Not just essential in the moment, but also what has the ability to compound in the future. This is a skill, I would argue. It is not very ordinary to be able to step back, look at the big picture, and clearly—without a doubt—identify those strategic decisions that are worth “$10K”.
$10K work differs from $1K activities because the latter trade time for high-value jobs. And since time is limited, there is low leverage in $1K actions. $1K work is what a lawyer at a top law firm does (and similar jobs). There is a subtle link between the “10K framework” and the Eisenhower matrix. $10K activities tend to be the ones that are important but don’t feel urgent. They are those that do not move your business/life forward immediately but have compound effects in the future. They are strategic-level decisions: recruiting, training partners, implementing standard operating procedures.
High leverage high skill activities require focus. “Indistraction” allows you to identify and understand that which is worth $10K.
Thank you for reading this week’s Weekly Reflection issue. “See” you again next week. If you have any thoughts/questions/feedback on this newsletter and its content, consider hitting reply, and I will be ecstatic to chat.