Mozart was a celestial genius, but he struggled like a mere mortal during his teens and early twenties. Though already a prolific composer, he had to work as an organist and concertmaster in his native Salzburg to make ends meet. Underpaid, unfulfilled, and hemmed in by his frustratingly average gigs, he felt a burning desire to devote more time and energy to his art. So after a period of doubt and deliberation, that’s exactly what he did. He quit his job, set up shop in Vienna, and embarked on what turned out to be the most productive and creative period of his life.

Amazon released its Q4 and full year earnings on Feb. 3. North American revenue was up 18.4% in 2021 versus 2020, which is only a slightly faster growth than the overall retail industry growth of 17.9%, as measured by the US Department of Commerce. Amazon’s growth rate is slowing by historical standards, it has previously never been below 20% since Amazon started reporting North American sales in 2014.

For the first time, Amazon broke out the revenue it collects from advertisers on its platform. Previously this revenue had been lumped into a category Amazon labeled “other.” In 2021 Amazon collected $31.16 billion in advertising revenue from sellers on its platform, which was a 32% increase over 2020. This makes Amazon the third largest digital advertising platform in North America, behind Google and Facebook.

By far, the most common complaint I hear from product managers is not having enough time in the day. They are drowning in product execution tasks like requirements gathering, story writing, stakeholder management, project management, scrum rituals, bug fixes, customer success, deal support, recurring meetings, and all manner of fire-fighting.

With all these things to do, it’s difficult to find time for longer-term and higher-impact activities like vision, strategy, product discovery, or hiring. Though most people recognize that these activities are important, they never seem to prioritize their work in a way that reflects this. These tasks always end up happening only after everything else, which often means they don’t get done at all.