When I launched my tech company, Emakatt Laundry, the startup scene was buzzing with excitement. And in the country, it was something rare that we almost knew each other who were in the space. We all felt like nerds and heroes in our own ways.

It didn’t matter what our vision or goals were. What really mattered was how cool we looked moving towards those individual goals. My company aimed to decentralise the laundry business. We created an on-demand app for people to request laundry pick-up and delivery.

I got the inspiration from Uber, where you could request a car on demand through an app. You can request a driver to pick up your clothes. They’ll take them to your favorite laundromat or our laundry service. Easy and done! That was the vision and the most important thing.

But with the bug of tech startups, things had to look cooler and more interesting. And one of the areas that I was overly excited and happy about was in T-shirts. The tech startups in the United States inspired me, and I felt their vibes. I wanted my tech to walk the same path.

We designed some of the coolest staff t-shirts and business cards. They were so cool that even our friends and other tech founders would request them as souvenirs. That made us feel like we had accomplished something, and we made more of them just to end up giving out more of them. Our justification was that it was a way of advertising and branding.

A few months later, the reality kicked in; our sales were not going anywhere. Some months, our t-shirts were moving faster than the number of laundries we did. And those t-shirts we gave out for free, while we incurred significant costs to produce them, were a concern. Something had to change.

We had an emergency meeting and discussed the situation. First, we had to define the key performance indicators for our business. 

The top three were: 

• The number of people who downloaded the app. 
• The number of people who used the app to request laundry. 
• The number of people who reused the app for laundry requests.

In the top ten of the indicators, there was no place for the coolest T-shirts.

We focused on tasks that didn’t matter for the key performance indicators, but we did them well. The coolest t-shirts were not moving any of the indicators for our performances. We did so well in the t-shirt design and branding, but it was not an important thing for the business.

In our summary, one quote stood out: “Doing something unimportant well doesn’t make it important.” I really connected with this. We did so well on the t-shirts, but that did not make it important enough to make our business grow.

We had to go back to the basics, define the important things, and remove all the unimportant things. We had to focus only on what mattered, even if other things seemed fancy and exciting. We started seeing the difference.

I took that lesson to heart; doing something unimportant well doesn’t make it important. In all areas of my life, it has been something practical and reasonable. My goal has been to define what is important and do that well. My other goal has been to identify what is unimportant that I am trying to do well and stop.

I used to have unimportant relationships where I put in a lot of effort. I always tried my best to keep up and stay connected. That didn’t change the fact that the relationship was never important and didn’t add value to my life. I let it go after I started to understand the logic.

I worked on some side projects that weren’t crucial for my career or business. Still, I enjoyed them and did them well. I always created time for them and went the extra mile. I had to stop doing them because, in the bigger picture, they were not adding anything to me.

I was really into movies. I downloaded them, watched them, and talked about them with anyone who would listen. I realised that it was something not important in my life even though I was doing it so well. I had to stop downloading movies. I needed to be more selective about what I watched and not discuss them, since it was unproductive.

In every area of life, this idea stands: doing something unimportant well doesn’t make it important. Take some time to reflect on your life and figure out what is important and what is not. 

Next, consider the key areas in your life—like your career, friendships, and relationships—where you think you’re struggling. Then get back to the things that are not important in your life but you tend to do them so well.

You have limited time, energy, and attention, and the good use of them is to focus on important things and do them well. 

Realizing that doing something unimportant won’t make it important means it is time to let it go. 

Let go of the unimportant, or life will force you to lose the important. #iThinkSo

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be free from suffering.

May you find peace and joy.

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Rogers Katuma

Financial Artist, Senior Adventurer, Occasional Storyteller, Amateur Golfer, Baby Pianist, and Rookie Chessman.