Читать книгу No B.S. Business Success In The New Economy - Dan S Kennedy - Страница 17

Most entrepreneurs I know experience great conflicts between their commitment to business and other aspects of their lives: marriage, family, civic activities, and so on. Having two failed marriages in my background, I’m hypersensitive to this conflict, and I’m always working on ways to handle it more effectively. The fact—and it is fact—that the line between “work” and “play” is thoroughly blurred for the true entrepreneur, and the corollary fact that the entrepreneur’s business life is often, frankly, bluntly, more important to him than his personal and social life is a huge source of befuddlement, annoyance, and tension for those around him. If you read a lot of biographies of great entrepreneurs, you’ll find this a common thread. Read the Buffet bio The Snowball just as example. The vast majority of people casually familiar with Warren Buffet view him as a kindly, wise owl, an elder statesman, a pater familias for investors. But being married to him or a child raised in his household would, if this book is to be believed, give you a very different sense of the man.

It’s convenient and easy for others to label the determined, passionate entrepreneur as a workaholic—a diseased, neurotic addict guilty of neglecting non-work responsibilities, of not loving his or her spouse or family, of being a self-absorbed ass. It’s convenient and easy, but overly simplistic, and certainly not very helpful.

In reality, the constantly working entrepreneur may be saner and happier than the critics. Most people detest their jobs, yet they continue going to them day after day, month after month, year after year. They spend the lion’s share of their lives doing things they find boring and unfulfilling, but lack the guts to do anything about it. They live for weekend escape. They spend five days a week as prison inmates and hope for two they may enjoy. Isn’t that sad? By contrast, the successful entrepreneur manages to create and stay involved in work that is so enjoyable and fulfilling that he no longer thinks of it as work, and that provides exceptional financial rewards as well.

The lovers, friends, parents, and others who throw around the workaholic label secretly resent their own “stuckedness” and try to make themselves feel better by attacking you, by making you feel guilty or odd.

We could dismiss the critics as jealous, resentful, and unreasonable just as easily as they label us as workaholics. However, no one wants to go through life married only to a business in general. We need mates, family, and close friends. And they won’t all be involved in our businesses or even in business. We don’t get to choose our families and, besides, some diversity in social life is healthy and necessary. So, better understanding of ourselves and others, recognition of the special problem we present to others, and creative efforts at preserving relationships are all very important.

The Blurred Line

One of the ultimate object lessons in this is Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airlines, and all the other Virgin companies and brands. He told Fortune magazine: “I don’t think of work as work and play as play. It’s all living.”

The typical entrepreneur is constantly initiating new projects, even new businesses, to justify the long day, to keep the game alive. They are not just motivated by desirable end results; they’re equally motivated by the enjoyment and thrill they derive from the whole process of business. They love the “action.” If this is workaholism, I’m guilty.

But, also, thanks to divorces, aging, long conversations with wiser people, and many other factors, I’m developing an appreciation for balancing that passion with other passions, so that I’m less guilty. And I’ve discovered a very odd secret. A difficult one for everybody raised on “work ethic” like me, but here it is: out-working everybody else on the planet is NOT the best path to success as an entrepreneur. As a matter of fact, figuring out how to work less—if focused on highest value and highest yield work—is far more useful. Over the past ten years, I’ve been systematically shedding businesses and responsibilities, cutting back on involvements, each year warning my CPA and tax advisor to anticipate a significant drop in my earnings. But the opposite has occurred.

Dan Kennedy’s Eternal Truth #2

If it’s work,

it won’t make you rich.

My Platinum Inner Circle Member and client Ron LeGrand has this saying:

The Less I Do,

The More I Make

Ron is a hugely successful real estate investor and entrepreneur, juggling literally hundreds of projects.

You have to be very careful about how you interpret this particular adage. You can’t take it literally, cut your work hours in half, sleep in a hammock, and expect your income to leap up. But there are many applications of this idea that work brilliantly. For example, the less you do that others could do, thus the more you do that only you can do, the more you make. Or, the less you do that feels too much like uninteresting, unfulfilling work and the more you do that feels like fun, the more you make.

Succeeding in business is a real magic trick. Succeeding in business and having a good life is an even greater, more challenging, more worthwhile trick. Since anything and everything is possible for the determined person, why not set your sights on the very best?

Some entrepreneurs manage to involve those close to them in their work-absorbed behavior. Tom Monaghan, founder of Dominos Pizza, gratefully tells of his wife’s patience when he would always choose a pizza joint to check out whenever they were traveling or on vacation. Some fortunate couples share the same entrepreneurial passion and have that work for them.

But what if you’re making the big transition from employee to entrepreneur with a spouse who is happy with your old behavior? Or what if you’re involved with someone who cannot survive in a relationship dominated by your entrepreneurial passion?

Some of these relationships end. If yours is to survive, you need to be very aware of the strain that your new entrepreneurial personality, passion, and lifestyle is going to create and take proactive, preventive steps to make up for it, then hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.