No better example of “Two is company, three is a crowd” than the juxtaposition of entrepreneurs, time and loved ones. (#JasonHowellCompany) Finding enough time to build a business and spend time with loved ones is nearly impossible except for the most effective time managers (which we entrepreneurs are typically not). So how do we show love to our business and our family?
Stories of successful entrepreneurs don’t help. Usually they begin with a lonely, destitiute protagonist with nothing left but an idea. Defeating all odds said protagonist discovers a need for his/her idea and then spends an inordinate amount of time (re: \”Outliers\”) trying to sell it. The guilt associated with trying to live up to the Outliers’ “10,000 hour” rule is also not much help. Most of us started our businesses to improve our own lives and the lives of our customers. We intended to “share the wealth” with those that our closest to us but along the way, those loved ones feel most left out. Since most of us who actually run businesses know that there is no true overnight successs, here are a few ways to express your love for your family while so busily loving your business:
- Communicate – nothing says lovin’ like actually saying “I love you.” Start with that phrase every once in a while to remind those close to you that your business is a means to the ends; not the ends.
- Be honest – it’s not just the strict requirements of building a business that keep us busy; sometimes it’s our own inefficiency. We’re not perfect, we’re entrepreneurs. I probably have misspellings in this blog post and the grammar’s probably off but hopefully you still get my message. Explain to your loved ones that you try really hard but that sometims you fail and that failure leads to encroaching on family time -you’re sorry.
- Get help – reading a book is a good start but be as inquistive with other entrepreneurs and even your clients regarding how they manage time with family. The good news is that successful people with 9 to 5 jobs typically struggle with family time also. Always asks for ideas and try them out.
Before writing this post I couldn’t help but read a couple articles on AOL.com that caught my interest. Today is MLK Day and though it’s a day of service, it’s a holiday and I felt I was “owed” some repreive before working. These are the mental gymnastics of an entrepreneur. Communicate and be honest about them with your family and be courageous enough to ask for help. I will start.
Do you have any other ideas for making time with loved ones?
Jason Howell is the author of AMERICA: Still the Land of Opportunity, Always a Home for the Brave.\” For more insights on success in business and in life, pick up your copy today.
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Perspective can make all the difference in this facet of life. My own approach to this universal challenge is first to attempt to be as intellectually and philosophically consistent as possible, in relation to my stated heirarchy of values. For example if, in my your personal set of values, “family comes first,” you need to live up to that value by setting your default mode to spending as much time as possible in being with your family. This means then that you have to “make time” for work. I think a lot of people face this challenge, whether their top value is “family first,” or “video games first,” or something else.
A good first step in conquering this challenge is to take a personal inventory of your values heirarchy. Write down, in the most basic terms possible, what means most to you. Take the time to think through which values belong in which order in your life. Then, make every effort you can to remember this list of your values (as opposed to the values of others) and to live consistently up to it.
Your most precious resource in this material existence is your time. Your allotted amount is finite, ever dwindling, and you never know exactly how much you have. Treat it as such by being frugal and generous with it according to your set of values, consistently applied.