Building a business is like flying an airplane. If you don't take the throttle to 100%, you won't take off.

Even 95% won't get you off the ground.

The question is: How do you know where your throttle is? Is it measured by your level of stress? By your level of struggle?

An equivalent of 95% throttle would be slaving away at a corporate job, spending maybe five hours a week building your SaaS product. You keep the job, go for promotions, and invest your extra cash in stocks and crypto, just in case.

Because of your consistent, steadfast devotion to your employer, you might have a secure retirement. Your five-hour-a-week investment into your SaaS business might produce a couple thousand dollars a month. You might be able to afford travel, maybe a timeshare in Hawaii, and of course a luxury car, though that would put an ugly dent in your bank account.

There's just one problem, though: you're already in your seventies. Rejuvenation biotechnology hasn't progressed enough to reverse your age, so you could be in this condition for a while. Not everyone can retire on less than their usual income while beating inflation.

A Better Alternative

Instead of spreading out your pain and suffering across five decades, take the throttle to 100% for a few years, then back off to 10% or so and cruise through the rest of your life. Concentrate your forces into your business for 2 to 5 years [1]. Outside of basic living expenses, put all your earnings into growing your business.

Importantly, put as much time as you can into your business. Learn the art of the (polite) no:

1. "No, I can't go bowling this weekend." You can bowl all you want when you're out of the rat race.
2. "Sorry, I can't go clubbing later." Who wants to party in a dark, dirty, sweaty atmosphere while losing their voice, anyway?
3. "No, I won't be answering calls or texts today." How many calls and texts are actually important?
4. "Thanks, but I can't make it to Carmine's for family dinner." You can show your family love without letting them dictate your schedule.

This also creates a balance. The more time passes between seeing friends and family, the more you have to talk about.

"Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires."—Francois de La Rochefoucauld

It's tempting to hedge by working on multiple projects, hoping one of them will eventually set you free. But how will you fare against competitors who aren't hedging?

Subtract to Improve

I've found that a process of elimination helps. When I find I'm doing or consuming something I don't need, like potato chips, I get rid of it. Sometimes I use it as a reward, but only for rare events.

This has slowly led to a schedule that keeps me mentally and physically sound, but still at full throttle. For example, eliminating things that damage my health frees up resources because I don't have to spend time or money buying them and my improved energy increases my output.

It's amazing how much freer you are when you finally eliminate something you thought you couldn't live without [2].

When you remove all distractions, so the only thing left to do is work on your business, you begin to love the process. It will take some adjustment to skip the Friday night party, the 2-hour video game session, or movie night, but that's part of cranking up the throttle. Do what everyone does, and your plane will stay on the runway like everyone else's.

Avoid Burnout Through Habit Graduation

Balance this throttle concept with the notion of average speed. If you're on such a high throttle that you have to stop after a short period and stay on a low throttle for an extended period because of burnout or technical debt, your average speed might be slower than someone who's at medium throttle but never let up.

The key is to leverage habit graduation to increase that throttle, so it isn't so jarring.

For example, to build your SaaS company's blog, start by publishing one well-researched post every two weeks. After a couple of months, crank it up to one post every week. As you uncover shortcuts and efficiency boosters, "graduate" to twice a week.

After a few graduations, you'll be at 100% throttle without feeling strained.

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[1] Joe Pulizzi suggests that a content-first business can earn $5 million in five years. You can monetize through information products, for example, while you develop your SaaS product.

[2] This reminds me of another example of improvement through subtraction: "We actually got an entire version of Burbn done as an iPhone app, but it felt cluttered, and overrun with features. It was really difficult to decide to start from scratch, but we went out on a limb, and basically cut everything in the Burbn app except for its photo, comment, and like capabilities. What remained was Instagram."—Kevin Systrom