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BY LORIN BELLER
OK, let’s see if we have this straight. When you first started your business, you dreamed of working a ton, being tired all the time, never seeing your family, and never having time for the hobbies you love. You planned to stare at your office walls 12 hours a day at least five days a week. This was your American Dream, right?
The time has come to start breaking your rules!
With summer coming to a close and fall around the corner, the weather is gorgeous and you really want to work less and play more—but you think you can’t. My business, Big Fish, has been built around how to help entrepreneurs achieve some balance in their lives. Doing business the Big Fish way, we believe that taking time for fun, and doing what you love (for part of the time) is not saying no to work. It’s designing your days so you truly love them. We think this concept makes for a more successful business owner.
Rather than working 10 to 12 hours a day, five or six days a week, I encourage the clients I work with to take time during the week to play golf, kayak or spend time doing whatever it is they love with their family and friends, whenever they want to do it. I tell them to go in late, leave early or take the afternoon off, whenever they want.
Doing these things makes you a happier person and when you are happy, people are attracted to you and whatever you have—your products or services. Loving your life and increasing your energy for life can transform your business.
While you are adopting this new philosophy on life, you have to take more responsibility for taking your business to the next level. This seems to go against our instincts, but what we find is that when our energy level is higher around our business and life, we attract more flow into our lives.
When we begin to take the time to have more fun in our lives, we become more efficient in our work because we have to. We delegate better, we dive into the meatier projects that have a bigger impact on our business, because we are working less. We become more efficient because we have to be more efficient.
In order to determine the most productive projects for your business, you have to have a long term vision for your business. So we’re advocating that you play more, have more fun, but do so by having a long term vision for your business and working at it in the most efficient and productive way.
One of my clients with a multi-million dollar business recently wrote me a note and expressed this thought: “I realized that time wasn’t as much the issue as the freedom to take the time.” This is exactly my point. If you own your own business, you have the freedom to take the time. And if you don’t believe that you do, it’s time to stop and think about what you are doing. Being a business owner allows you tremendous freedom. Don’t build fences than confine your life more than it needs to be.
Once you realize that you can take full advantage of your freedom as an entrepreneur, make a commitment to it. Tell those with whom you intend to spend more time that you will do it. Find a “buddy” to run, kayak, golf or do whatever it is you love to do. This will increase the likelihood that you will change your habits and start spending more time with the people and the things you love.
What is your dream? What is the vision of how you want your life to be? Go create it and remain fully responsible to your work and your vision. You will find that you will become more successful.
Lorin Beller is founder and president of Big Fish Nation, a year long program for entrepreneurs who want to be more successful and have a life, too. Lorin recently released her first book, From Entrepreneur to Big Fish: 7 Principles to Wild Success. For more information, visit her Web site at www.bigfishnation.com.
(This article is reprinted from the Summer 2005 edition of Enterprising Women magazine. Copyright 2005 Enterprising Women Inc. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited, except by express permission of the publisher.)
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