Tag: entrepreneur life issues

3 Reasons why every entrepreneur needs to invest in their love life

Entrepreneurs tend to focus solely on business in the startup phase. Making your love relationship a priority will bring greater emotional and financial success to your overall life more than anything else you could do for yourself.

Entrepreneurs are serial offenders when it comes to living unbalanced lives.

While the tools have never been more accessible for building massive personal wealth, if you race towards accumulating millions of dollars before you start focusing on your emotional well being then you might arrive at your finish line completely burned out.

The archetype of the overworked business person working 12 hours a day isn’t far from the truth for a lot of entrepreneurs throughout their businesses’ growth.

Lack of sleep doesn’t make you noble. Exhaustion isn’t a badge of honour. Having your default response to “How are you?” be “SO busy!” doesn’t make you a more valuable or interesting person than others.

So why aren’t love and balance commodities that are focused on more often?

Entrepreneurs tend to focus solely on business in the startup phase of any new business venture. The unspoken logic is that the accumulation of wealth will lead to overall fulfillment. If entrepreneurs are lucky (i.e. hard working) enough to achieve this, they sometimes realize that they’ve arrived at their finish line having no one to share the success with.

Making your love relationship a priority will bring greater emotional and financial success to your overall life more than anything else you could do for yourself. Even on a chemical level, the dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins that are released by being part of a thriving relationship will carry you through the tough phases of your businesses growth and give you a shield against that which would normally topple you (and your business).

Here are the three reasons that entrepreneurs need to invest in their intimate relationships for greater financial success and emotional fulfillment.

1. Finding A Balance Between Striving And Contentment

The most common objection to investing in relationships that entrepreneurs tend to give is that they don’t have the time to spare.

Being too busy working to invest in your emotional and romantic life is like saying you’re too busy driving to slow down to fill up your gas tank. Eventually you’re going to run out of fuel and blow a gasket.

If all you do with your life is strive, grow, and achieve in your business and financial life without balancing that with the beauty and comfort that comes from spending the occasional day relaxing with your lover (in or out of bed), you will forever feel deeply unfulfilled. Humans are a social species and we need emotional intimacy and physical contact to thrive.



2. Entrepreneurs Need Someone To Lean On

Entrepreneurship is stressful.

Is your goal to get carpel tunnel syndrome by the time you’re 35 from being on a computer so much? Or is the goal to build a lifestyle business that gives you more freedom?

When your eyeballs are glued to your screen, your neck muscles are tense, and you’re burning the midnight oil (yet again) and your partner comes up behind you to gently encourage you to call it a night, you are thankful for the reality check.

Freedom and independence from being an employee is a challenging and noble mission. But don’t try to make yourself independent from love and intimacy along the way. It’s not an “either/or” situation. You can have a thriving love relationship while you grow your dream business with patience and persistence.

You need someone to listen to you and guide you, and your partner can be the catalyst that reminds you to enjoy yourself in the present moment.

3. Entrepreneurs Need Someone To Remind Them Who They Are

The path to owning and operating a thriving business can be a long one… but it doesn’t have to be a lonely one.

When you are writing that important blog post, about to close that client, or facing a new challenge, you might feel overwhelmed. And while it’s possible to feel like you and your partner can read each other’s minds, it’s unlikely, so open up a little and tell them what you are thinking or how you are feeling. Maybe you can brainstorm ideas or solutions with them. You may not even need advice, but just talking about a concern out loud can help you clarify it for yourself.

Your stress level can go down dramatically with a comforting hug from your romantic partner. But what you need will be different at various times, so if you are needing encouragement, express your self-doubt to your partner. Everyone’s self-confidence dips at times, and your partner will love that you have turned to them for emotional support.

They will remind you of your core mission in life. They will tell you why you do what you do when you feel like momentarily giving up. They will be the voice of reason when you need it the most.

More than just being someone to lean on, your relationship partner will be the calm before, during, and after the storm that you sometimes feel like you live in when trying to run your business.



Entrepreneurs Can Have It All

You can find a balance between your love of the freedom that your revenue affords you, with the love of your relationship partner wrapping their arms around you as you cuddle up for the night.

Can you make a million dollars while being single? Of course you can. But if you can get there even faster by being in a relationship, then why wouldn’t you?

And just like you are most likely to skip the gym when you need it the most (when you’re stressed and overworked), entrepreneurs are prone to ignoring their intimate relationships in search for revenue and societal influence.

So listen to your partner, work on your relationship more than you work on your business and their support and intuition will help guide you.

Your romantic partner will bring the sense of balance and contentment that you so desperately need in order to arrive at your businesses milestones with a smile already firmly plastered across your attractive face.

Investing in your love life is good for your health, and your bottom line will thank you.

This post was originally published in projectlifemastery.com

Image credit: www.businessinsider.com



How can entrepreneurs improve their personal relationships?

How do you manage your own personal relationships? Have you had any conflict with your spouse, family member or close friend because of your entrepreneurial spirit?

It’s not uncommon for committed entrepreneurs to pour everything into their business and everything means everything because running a business becomes an obsession. Entrepreneurial fervor can dominate your daily thoughts, conversation, time and financial stability and it can adversely affect your relationships.

It’s not that entrepreneurs don’t want to spend more time with loved ones, it’s that there aren’t enough hours in the day and taking a break from your business can feel like a step backward.

That’s why other entrepreneurs were asked for their best advice to overcome this challenge. Following is a collection of tips and quotes from eight successful founders, CEOs and solopreneurs about how to improve your personal relationships while remaining productive and dedicated to your entrepreneurial efforts.

1. Assess your priorities.

Almost every entrepreneur surveyed mentioned prioritizing goals as one of the most effective tactics for making time for and maintaining personal relationships. Social Media Examiner founder Mike Stelzner explained it best when he said, “You can’t start something new without stopping something else.”

So, when you tackle new challenges, such as starting a business, you need to drop other activities from your day-to-day routine. To better maintain your work-life balance, assess your daily tasks by setting those priorities you must accomplish for both your mental sanity and business success.

Prioritizing can help you hone-in on what is really important and reduce unnecessary stress when other tasks compete for your attention. This process also helps identify whether any of your basic needs are out of whack for example, when you skip meals, slack on physical fitness or miss time with your loved ones. If any of these are true in your life, you may need to make a change and reassess how your business is affecting your life.

2. Create boundaries to align business goals and personal relationships.

To keep a balanced approach to your priorities as they relate to both your personal and business needs, you should set clear limits differentiating the two. For example, social media keynote speaker Neal Schaffer suggests entrepreneurs maintain a consistent schedule and boundaries to keep up with their personal commitments and avoid overworking.

“Create boundaries for your business that exist in a 9 to 5 corporate world,” Schaffer says “such as deciding the hours you will work each day and sticking to it. Additionally, make sure that you meet a friend or someone in your network for lunch on a weekly basis.”

If you struggle to cram your work into eight hours, you can add “no work” blocks into your calendar. For example, every few hours, go for a 15-minute walk or follow Schaffer’s advice and take a two hour lunch twice a week to connect with friends or a spouse. Those blocks can help you recharge, avoid burnout and improve your personal relationships while ensuring that you still allocate enough time for your other priorities.

Schedule a minimum of 90 minutes per day, with larger blocks (or even full days) cut out every five to 10 days. Experiment with different types of breaks to see what works best for you.

3. Separate work life from home life.

One of the benefits of being your own boss can be the freedom to work from home. If you decide that your living room also doubles as your office, you should be aware that the lines between work and home life can become blurred. So, again, differentiating the two is an important step, particularly when your family or roommates are home with you.



This was one of the more difficult challenges for freelance writer Kristi Hines to overcome. “I had a hard time ‘leaving’ work on a daily basis,” she says. “I ended up renting an office outside of my home, which has helped me separate myself at the end of the work day, so I can focus on spending time with the family without thinking about emails, blog posts and so forth.”

If you don’t have the luxury of renting your own office space, you can still create separation by setting ground rules for yourself and other housemates.

  • Develop an at home work routine. Get properly showered and dressed at an appropriate hour for work, even if you’re just moving from your bed to your living room.
  • Create an office environment.Make a space that is designed solely for work; avoid your bed and the couch.

While there are many other ways to work from home, these tips can help you and your housemates better distinguish when it’s time for work and when it’s time for rest or family. These can help you avoid conflict later.

4. Host your own parties.

For entrepreneurs who maintain a large network of friends and professionals, on top of their business and personal relationships, finding balance can be even more challenging.

Convince and Convert founder Jay Baer says he finds that it can be difficult to keep up with larger networks, particularly when he is on the road, traveling. He suggests that entrepreneurs manage their personal connections and networks by hosting events.

“The most efficient way to keep your relationships up is to have a lot of your friends in the same room,” Baer says.. “So, even if it’s not in your nature, learn to throw great parties, and do it at least three or four times each year. Invite everyone you know, and you get to catch up with a lot of folks in one day.”

If you’re frequently on the road, plan for a family get-together or a night out with a group of your friends when you return. Your events don’t need to be extravagant or even scheduled on a weekly basis, but making a concerted effort to spend more time with your network can help alleviate the distance friends may be feeling when you are particularly busy.

Baer also mentions that managing relationships can be accomplished to some degree through online channels, such as Skype, Blab or Facetime. Face-to-face interaction, albeit digital, can be a powerful way to build stronger relationships with your connections — particularly when compared to a text message, email or phone call.

5. Prioritize mutually beneficial relationships.

One of the most rewarding feelings while networking for your business is creating a win-win situation for all parties involved. This same principle cn be applied while developing your personal relationships as well.

Brian Honigman, content marketing consultant and CEO of Honigman Media, adds: “Like everyone else, my time is limited and valuable. Being an entrepreneur has helped me reflect on relationships in my life to better understand if they are mutually beneficial and make both people happy. I’ve done my best, which is far from perfect, to make time for the people in my life that really matter and let some relationships fall to the wayside, as they didn’t mean much to either of us.

“I’ve become more selective and more focused on the important friendships in my life, and you should too.”

Nearly all respondents mentioned letting go of past connections as a recurring challenge, but also a necessary step in their process to building stronger personal relationships.

So, start by thinking about the people closest to you. Are you open with them about the needs of your business? Are you devoting an appropriate amount of your energy toward those individuals? Are some of these people connected to your business in any manner?

Identifying who makes the cut can be a gut-wrenching operation; however, it can help you better determine which people really need your full-time support and alleviate any anxiety you may have built when paying less attention to the others.

For example, you should worry less about grabbing a beer with an old high school friend and focus more on giving your aging grandmother a hug and attention. Finding your key relationships can help your develop your own support group — an “inner circle” if you will.



6. Focus on your support group — cut negativity.

Founder of Social Selling Labs Koka Sexton offers a similar perspective to that of Honigman and advises that entrepreneurs focus on people who really support their ambitious efforts.

“For the people who do support you, you need to make time for them,” Sexton says. “I believe that the people who are there for you as an entrepreneur are going to be more understanding when you can’t go out as often or do the activities they are used to having you around for.”

Sexton goes on to mention that entrepreneurs should remove any negative people from their life, which can be difficult: “It’s not easy to let go of friendships, but if you want to be successful, you cannot allow yourself to be around these negative people.”

Start by identifying your support group. This could include your spouse, your mother, your best friend. Make sure that you establish boundaries in your work schedule to incorporate the needs of these people.

Next, assess the individuals who bring negativity into your life, and determine whether they are worth your limited time and energy.

Finally, ask yourself whether you should continue to allow those people to bring their negativity — or if they are serving as a motivating factor and pushing you forward.

This process can help you clear your conscience when you begin letting relationships become distant, and also help you really appreciate the people that have always been there for you.

7. Recognize that quality outweighs quantity.

Entrepreneurs are often reminded that there are only 24 hours in a day — and while you can’t cram more hours into your day, you can focus on improving the efficiency, productivity and quality of our relationship and business efforts.

Focus on creating quality relationships with the individuals you are closest with. Turn off your cell phone at the dinner table, remove yourself from work banter, engage in quality conversation, ask thoughtful questions, listen more and enjoy every moment that you get with them.

Offering a quick lesson in efficiency, Patel mentions that he has developed several personal relationships with his professional peers. This “blending of relationships,” he says, has helped him become really good friends with the people he works with.

8. Allow others to pick up your slack.

Tailored Ink founder Han-Gwon Lung adds a final lesson that managers, leaders and entrepreneurs can really get behind: Delegate tasks to keep your sanity and your closest relationships. “The only way I achieve work-life balance while running my own company (and scaling it) is by finding people more talented than myself in some areas and having them do the work for me,” he says. “Then, I get the hell out of their way.”

You may have to trust me on this one, but it’s okay to not be perfect at everything and you shouldn’t have to bear the load of your entire business on your own – at least not forever. Start by assessing your core weaknesses and rank them in order of priority for your business. Remember that prioritization is a recurring theme.

For example, your list could look like this:

1) web coding

2) graphic design

3) administrative tasks

4) email marketing.

It’s important to recognize that even tasks that you can accomplish on your own may not fit your optimal skill set. So, put them on your list if they cause frustration or angst, or take too long to accomplish effectively. From there you can better determine how much time to spend on each task and whether you should get outside help to improve your efficiency.

Finding new ways to manage your weaknesses can free up additional time for you to spend with your closest personal relationships while simultaneously growing your empire.

How do you manage your own personal relationships? Have you had any conflict with your spouse, family member or close friend because of your entrepreneurial spirit? What solutions have helped you improve your relationships? Share your experiences below.

This article was originally published in Entrepreneur.com

Image credit: 123rf.com