Unlocking the power of journaling: A secret tool of billionaire entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 CEOs

ILLUSTRATION BY RUTH MACAPAGAL

A practice that I recommend to my high-net worth business owner and CEO clients, including Fortune 500 CEOs, is to keep a journal. Journaling is regularly writing down one’s thoughts, feelings and experiences in a personal journal or diary. It is a tool that has been used for centuries by many successful people, including business leaders, as a means of self-reflection and personal growth. What is journaling and why is it such a powerful tool for business leaders?

The benefits for you

Journaling is a powerful tool for business leaders because it allows them to clarify their thoughts, reflect on their experiences and gain insights into their own strengths and weaknesses. By writing down their thoughts and feelings, business leaders can identify patterns of behavior and thinking that may be holding them back and identify areas where they need to improve.

In addition to providing insights into one’s thinking and behavior, journaling can help business leaders manage stress and focus on their goals. By writing down their thoughts and worries, business leaders can gain a sense of control over their emotions and better manage their stress levels. Journaling can also help business leaders stay focused on their long-term goals by providing a place to record their progress and reflect on their accomplishments.

Famous examples

There are many famous business leaders who keep journals. Here are a few examples:

Bill Gates: The cofounder of Microsoft has been keeping a journal since he was a teenager. He uses it to reflect on his work and personal life, and set future goals. He has credited this practice with helping him to clarify his thoughts and ideas, and to reflect on his experiences and decisions.

Richard Branson: The billionaire entrepreneur and founder of Virgin Group has been keeping journals since his teenage years. He has said that he finds this process to be a helpful tool for staying focused and productive and for reflecting on his personal and professional goals.

Mark Zuckerberg: The cofounder of Facebook has been keeping a journal since his early days as a computer programmer. He uses it to record his ideas and to reflect on his personal and professional growth.

Elon Musk: The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has been keeping a journal since his teenage years. He uses it to record his thoughts and ideas, and to stay focused on his goals.

Warren Buffett: The legendary investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway has been keeping a journal for over 50 years. He uses it to reflect on his business and investment decisions and to stay focused on his long-term goals.

EQ, IQ and journaling

I have been keeping a journal for years in which I reflect on significant business decisions, especially the strategic ones that are vital for my group of companies. It is a small notebook I carry with me all the time. I use it to have a conversation with myself. It also does much more than that: it gives me an opportunity to check in with myself, to see how I am doing, as if I was talking to a good friend who is always there to listen, day or night. I have taken some of my best business decisions after regular journaling.

In our busy day-to-day business lives, we rarely have a chance to have honest, open and transparent conversations with ourselves. However, it is precisely that reflection that is the hallmark of the most outstanding business leaders because it allows them to bring the principles and assumptions behind their decisions out in the open and assess them critically.

Make better decisions

Failure is feedback. Failures are part of life, especially business.

Remember: most businesses are only one to two major strategic decisions away from complete failure—even the market leaders. Sometimes, CEOs or business owners make rash decisions, snap decisions or become so infatuated with an idea that they do not think or see as clearly as necessary. As I always emphasize to our clients, the principles and assumptions behind your strategic decisions are as important as the decisions themselves.

If these principles are not sound, the findings won’t be either. Because journaling is a powerful tool that also allows for deeper insights into one’s thinking and behavior, it can bring the principles behind decisions into clearer light so that you can examine them better.

To make your best strategic decisions as a business leader, you must use intuition and intellect. Regular journaling empowers you to bring your intuitive abilities and skills together with your analytical ones. It also safeguards you against loss of balance or burnout, a crucial thing to avoid if you want to have continued and prolonged extraordinary success as a business leader.

How to start a journal

It can seem overwhelming, but it is actually a simple process. Here are some steps to get started:

1. Choose a format: Decide whether to write in a physical notebook or use a digital platform. Plenty of journaling apps and software are available for those who prefer to type rather than write.

2. Reader or listener? Peter Drucker, the famous management guru of the last century, distinguished between “readers” and “listeners” in the context of learning and personal development. According to him, readers are those who prefer to learn by reading, while listeners are those who like to learn by listening.

Drucker believed it is essential to understand your learner type, as it can impact how you approach personal development and learning. For example, if you are a reader, you may prefer to learn by reading books or articles; if you are a listener, you may attend lectures or listen to podcasts.

This is important for your journaling. Recording audio messages as “notes to self” may not be better than writing them down.

3. Pick a time: Choose a consistent time of day that you can dedicate to journaling. It might be in the morning before work or in the evening before bed.

4. Decide on a purpose: Determine why you want to start a journal. Is it to record your thoughts and feelings, track progress toward a goal or simply to have a creative outlet?

5. Start writing: Begin with a simple prompt, such as, “Today I feel…” or “What I want to accomplish this week is…” Write for a set amount of time, whether it’s 10 minutes or an hour.

6. Don’t overthink it: Remember that journaling is a personal practice, and there is no right or wrong way to do it. Don’t worry about grammar, spelling or even making sense. Just write what comes to mind.

7. Keep it up: Make journaling a habit by setting reminders or incorporating them into your daily routine. The more you practice, the easier it will become.

The most important thing is to find a method that works for you. Feel free to experiment with different prompts, formats and styles until you find the one that resonates with you. INQ

Tom Oliver, a “global management guru” (Bloomberg), is the chair of The Tom Oliver Group, the trusted advisor and counselor to many of the world’s most influential family businesses, medium-sized enterprises, market leaders and global conglomerates. For more information and inquiries: www.TomOliverGroup.com or email [email protected].