You shed tears during your entrepreneurial journey; you sacrifice many things – your hobbies, your interests, and more. Even some entrepreneurs sacrifice their personal wellbeing for the pursuit of business success.
But listen up – there are so many reasons why entrepreneurs can’t life a good life, even after achieving the coveted “business success.” How so?
Delaying gratification is great; sacrificing your hobbies for the sake of your business success is plausible. However, you need to draw a straight line between “great effort” and “too much effort” in pursuing business success.
Too much effort could bring business success, but nothing else
I often heard from family and friends stories about successful entrepreneurs who are real hard workers, building their business from big zip into a great one – not necessarily make then billionaires, but sufficient enough to let them enjoy their life without worrying much about money. The stories funnel into stereotypical life of successful entrepreneurs who put up too much effort toward their business success…
Living their life with reckless abandon, affairs, drugs – coupled with insomnia; depression, and anxiety. Why? Most of them follow the principle of “work hard, play hard.”
Unfortunately, the “work hard” part often take over an entrepreneur’s life so much that there’s nothing left to be desired of.
And many of such entrepreneurs nag, “I work hard all my life, but in my old age I can’t enjoy my life because I was so sick and tired of my life – literally.”
What the point of having so much money but you can’t enjoy it and put it into a good use, because you work too hard toward your business success but abandon your personal well-being, your family, your life?
You need to pursue balance – the always-interesting topic of “work-life balance.”
Work-life balance is a must, or else…
Tell me – if you are working 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, what the rest 6 hours a day will give you? Emptiness.
And here’s the cold, hard truth about the 80/20 rule (Pareto’s law) in your work-life balance: You live 80 percent of your life within your 6 hours a day limit, while pursuing the 20 percent with 18 hours of your daily life.
That sucks.
Many say you are dedicated, but I’ll say you are wasting your time.
Consider this – how can you be a dedicated person if you are putting everything else into the 6 hours/day? Sleeping and resting, building a relationship with your spouse (and children,) pursuing your hobby, etc. while spending the 18 hours/day on your business-related activities?
You need to have a life beyond business
You must enjoy every bit of your entrepreneurial journey beyond the business itself. Your family, your hobby, your life – all is an integral part of your entrepreneurial journey’s success.
A successful business can bring you great wealth, and great wealth can bring you more opportunities in your business and personal life. But a successful personal life allows you to pursue and enjoy such opportunities to the fullest.
Yes, you can live a fairy tale life – successful business, happy family, fulfilled dreams, etc. The real question is, do you really want it? Do you really want to decide and take action toward your happily ever after?
Ivan Widjaya
I want to live a life – you should, too