Any founder or CEO invests what I call the 4Ts—time, treasure, talent, and trust—in their business. Time includes both physical time—the amount of hours you show up to fulfill your vision, and psychic time—how we direct our attention. Treasure includes the actual cash we invest and the opportunities that we forgo in making this decision. Talent is the skills, experience, and wisdom that we bring to the endeavor. And trust is the emotional investment—the faith we place in ourselves, partners, vendors, customers, and the world.

Our 4Ts are a finite resource. Effective allocation of our 4Ts is essential to creating a great business.

We invest our 4Ts for the purpose of generating a favorable return on investment (ROI)—more time, more treasure, more talent, or deeper trust. The particular facets of the ROI differ for each of us—but the bottom line of any ROI calculation is that we are all searching for happiness. Skillful allocation of our 4Ts leads us to happiness.

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