A business building buddy
inserts a strip of paper
with a very bad child-friendly joke
into every shipment
of her products.
She grins every time
she does this.
It gives her joy.
It also gives
some of her customers joy.
But that isn’t the primary purpose.
The primary purpose
is it makes my friend happy.
And happy business builders
continue to build businesses.
Add some joy
to your work day.
That happiness
might be the burst of energy
you need.
When I graduated,
I warned my Mom and siblings
and friends
I planned to work
REALLY hard for about 20 years.
Then I planned
to semi-retire
(i.e. for business builders,
this usually means
building businesses
that might not pay back…ever).
Whenever they worried
I was burning myself out
(I did burn out…a bit),
I would remind them,
“I have X years left.”
And they would relax,
satisfied,
knowing I had an end date.
When I hit 20 years of working,
I had also hit my financial goals
and I stopped working
(that hard)
for a bit.
Right now, during the holiday rush,
you’re likely working
REALLY hard.
Your loved ones might be worried
about you.
They are likely missing your company.
Give them an end date.
Tell them on January 5th,
for example,
your work schedule will slow down.
Do that countdown with them.
Then SLOW DOWN on that date.
Deliver on your promise.
We can tolerate many challenges
in the short run.
Give your loved ones a date
when they can expect to spend time
with you again.
There are frustrations
in every job,
every business,
every industry.
If we don’t express
these frustrations to someone
(this could be a human someone
or a cat
or a plant),
if we don’t vent
some of these extreme emotions,
they will erupt
usually at the most inconvenient time
when we are with customers
or people we’re trying to impress.
I have someone I vent to.
I express my frustrations
to him on,
at least,
a weekly basis.
He is outside the industry
so he is unlikely
to ever inadvertently
reveal my feelings
to people I sell to
or partner with.
I’ll preface the deluge
of complaints
by telling him
“I just have to vent.”
He knows then
that he doesn’t have
to provide solutions.
All he has to do
is listen.
And I do the same
for him
when he needs to vent.
We both feel better,
are calmer,
and can go back
to whatever we’re working on.
Ensure you have someone
to vent to.
Many of us
are bootstrapping our businesses.
We’re trying to make
our funds
stretch as far as we can.
I get that.
But spend a little extra
and get a good office chair.
It doesn’t have to be new.
There are plenty of used office chairs
on the market.
But it should be a good chair,
a chair that supports your body
and ensures
you don’t damage yourself
while working those long hours
starting your business.
We need to remain
healthy.
We have businesses to build.
Get a good office chair.
I’ve been traveling lately
and my internal timetable
is all f*cked up.
I’ll wake up at 2am
and fall asleep at noon.
At first,
I would fight this.
I’d stay in bed
and hope to fall asleep again.
Then I realized
that was foolish.
I run my own businesses
and many of my tasks
don’t require partners.
I can work
whenever I want.
So when I’m awake,
I work.
When I feel tired,
I sleep.
We are our own bosses.
We can work
on OUR schedules.
I had a hard deadline
on the 30th
and I pushed it,
working long hours,
to make it.
This week,
I’m rewarding myself
by resting,
by catching up
on that sleep
I missed
last week.
I’m working.
I can’t shut down
my business
entirely for a week
and not suffer
a drop in sales.
But I’m doing
the bare minimum.
Next week,
I’ll be back
to working full hours
and I’ll have more energy
to accomplish all those tasks.
Take time to rest
after pushing yourself.
Ensure you stay
as healthy as possible.