Last week, I had the opportunity to spend time with a group of executives working on a regional project. One phrase that came up repeatedly was: control your controllables.

Although this was said in the context of regional development, it’s incredibly applicable to startups as well. In startup land, it’s easy to worry about competitors, the government, or other external factors that may or may not happen. Of course, it’s human nature to do so. But if you take a step back and sort out what’s within your control and what’s outside of it, things become much clearer. You realize there are a tremendous number of actions you can take regardless of what happens around you.

Take sales as an example. Naturally, the sales team wants to close a certain amount of revenue each month or quarter to hit quota and move the startup forward. The challenge with measuring purely on output is that output is driven by inputs—many of which include factors outside of your control.

So let’s look at sales through the lens of control your controllables.

• Can we guarantee a certain amount of revenue? No.
• Can we guarantee a certain number of phone calls and prospect follow-ups? Absolutely.
• Can we guarantee that every inbound lead will be followed up on within a set amount of time? Absolutely.
• Can we guarantee consistent outreach to key partners so we stay top-of-mind in the market? Absolutely.

In this simple example, we know that sales has measurable inputs: the number of phone calls, follow-ups, demos, proposals sent, and deals won. The deeper you go into the funnel, the more outcomes are outside of your control. But by consistently executing the inputs, you significantly increase the likelihood of hitting the outputs.

Entrepreneurs would do well to remember this: control your controllables. What’s within your power? What’s outside of it? How can you keep your team focused on what they can control—and not distracted by what they can’t?

At the end of the day, entrepreneurs must control their controllables.