Steve Portnoy

How I Stopped Chasing Hustle and Started Closing Bigger Deals

I used to think scaling a business meant working more. I was wrong.

For years, I believed success was all about outworking everyone else. More hours. More meetings. More hustle.

Until it burned me out.

One day, after back-to-back calls with zero progress, it hit me: I wasn’t being productive—I was just busy.

I realized I had fallen into a trap: confusing movement with progress.
That’s when everything changed.

I stopped asking, “What more can I do?” and started asking, “What’s the ONE thing I can do today that makes everything else easier?”

This simple shift—thanks to Tim Ferriss’ idea of leverage—helped me eliminate the noise and focus only on high-value activities.

🚀 The results?

• I doubled my productivity.
• Closed better clients.
• Finally made space to breathe.

The lesson? Progress isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing less of the wrong things.

👉 What’s one belief about work that you’ve had to unlearn?

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