If you’re looking for a way to incite rage and fury in me then this is a sure-fire way…
I abhor the above post, and I would be lying if I said it didn’t cross my mind to simply start and end this article with some choice profanities and leave it there. But on reflection, there are some important things to say – especially to leaders/founders – around the idea that to ‘succeed’ you must forfeit everything else in your life.
Especially when I think the opposite is true.
Of course, there are times when running your own business means you cannot be as flexible as you might like. There will be moments when it’s a demanding baby that insists on your attention and requires your focus for long periods of time. OF. COURSE.
And (it’s worth saying) that if you’re passionate, driven, and excited by your business then you will want to make these short-term compromises.
But (and that’s a but with a capital B by the way) to deliberately design your business so it cannot function effectively without intruding on the rest of your life, and to the detriment of your physical and mental health, means you are designing a business that is unscalable, unsustainable, and unhealthy.
A question to ask yourself if you’re reading this is
‘How do I design a business that will remain resilient and allow me to give the best to the business without costing my emotional and physical health?’
Stop and really reflect on this question. Dedicate and carve out some time to think on it.
Because ‘success’ isn’t just growing a business to sell and make profit – although those things might be important to you – success can be any number of things to any number of people. And if you are prioritising growing, selling and profit above and beyond everything else then you need to know that you are paying for it elsewhere in your life.
If you decide to remain unchanged, then of course that’s your decision, but do so consciously, and know that there is a cost. It’s easy at times to not consider the things you are sacrificing at all. To view them as unworthwhile of thought, a distraction from your business. But the chances are if this is true that you are ignoring them then in the long run you will suffer, and your business will fail.
This LinkedIn statement is so wrong because it assumes everyone’s idea of success is the same. But to one person success could be to simply ‘do good’, or ‘be a great role model to my children’. This glib, self-centred statement based on nothing but one person’s own experience is incredibly unhelpful.
What are your thoughts?
Andy.