Sharpening the Axe

The practice of investing time in high-leverage activities (hiring, systems, tools) before diving into execution — named after the Abraham Lincoln idea that six hours spent sharpening an axe before chopping a tree is better spent than six hours hacking with a dull blade.

Kyle’s framing is drawn from Andrew Wilkinson’s tweet: “An entrepreneur saying ‘I don’t have time to hire someone’ is like a diabetic saying ‘I don’t have time to take my insulin.’” The refusal to invest in Hiring is itself a symptom of the capacity problem — founders too overwhelmed to make the hire that would end the overwhelm. The axe stays dull precisely because the operator is “too busy” chopping.

The meta-pattern: the highest-leverage work is always the kind that takes you out of the current workload loop. Sharpening the axe requires stopping the work to make the work better. This is why it’s avoided — it feels like lost productivity rather than the most productive use of time.

Where this appears

• An Entrepreneur Saying “I Don’t… (tweet)