There’s no such thing as work-life balance (or any other reason why business isn’t about money)
Two themes come up frequently in my conversations with and reading about other entrepreneurs – work/life balance and the “bottom line”.
The former doesn’t exist, and the latter isn’t why you work.
If you’re in business for the right reasons, you love what you do; it’s what gets you out of bed in the morning. Of course you love your family; of course you have other interests besides work. No respectable person puts work before family; no reasonable person has only one interest to the exclusion of all others.
But it’s better to love what you do, especially if you’re self-employed. Honestly, why would you hire yourself to do a job you don’t like?
So, let’s assume that your job is just another manifestation of your passion.
Do you really expect to take it off and wear it as a sweater? And what does it have to do with money?
Sometimes I work late into the night, missing time with my family because I’m in the zone. Sometimes. But just as often; in fact, more often than not, I take time out in the middle of a “work day” to spend time with my wife, my daughters, my friends. I take time, right in the middle of the week, away from work and the office to engage in spiritual activities with my family. I stop work at 4:00 most days to work on an album of jazz songs I’m writing with my older daughter; then I go back to what I was doing. Or I don’t. I keep my goals loose and flexible whenever possible so I can decide how to spend my time.
Work/life balance means being balanced in my own head, not on a clock or calendar.
And money? come on I would make 90% of what I make now even if I had enough money to retire. I love writing. I love coaching solo professionals, writers, musicians, helping them better communicate with their prospects and fans to establish trust and build relationships. I love my web business; sorting out what’s needed, designing tools, doing usability studies, helping customers build what they really need instead of what they think they need. (Okay, if I really had the money, I’d outsource the coding to someone more talented than me.)
I like to barter. If someone has a skill I can use and needs something I can do, I want to work with them. What I don’t want is to turn our genuine human concern into a commercial enterprise. Fer cryin’ out loud; The whole point of my consulting business and my writing is to do the exact opposite, to make businesses more human, to stop behaving like abstract beings without souls and start talking, trusting and caring like real human beings beings.
Work/life balance is how you choose to serve yourself and those you love every minute of every day; elections for the long term, not for the moment.
And in the long run, it’s not about money. Never.
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