Motivational speaker Michael Altshuler offers one of the most empowering takes on time management I’ve ever heard. It acknowledges the obvious — time moves fast — but then hands back the power: you’re the pilot. For small business owners, that’s the core truth of entrepreneurship. You can’t slow time, but you can steer it.
There was a stretch early in my business when I felt completely out of control. Every day brought new problems — missed calls, staff issues, sudden crises. I was in the cockpit, but the plane was flying itself. Altshuler’s line hit me one morning as I stared at a pile of unfinished work: I’m not helpless. I just stopped flying.
A major pitfall is living reactively. We let urgency replace intention. Emails dictate our priorities. Clients dictate our calendar. I started changing that by creating flight plans for my week — mapping key objectives, scheduling focus time, and defining what “success” looked like for the next seven days.
Another mistake is overcorrecting — trying to control everything. Good pilots know turbulence is inevitable. Flexibility isn’t failure; it’s skill. I’ve learned to leave margin in my schedule so I can respond without losing direction.
Altshuler’s quote is a blend of comfort and challenge. Time will fly — it always does. But steering, even imperfectly, beats drifting every time. The sky belongs to those who take the controls, not those who wait for calm weather.