Look let me hit straight off the bat with this post, the reason most people are unsuccessful with their business is this: THEY ARE LAZY.
That’s right I said it, they don’t do enough, now I’m not saying they don’t have great, honest intentions. What I’m saying is they are stuck in the work life mentality, the 9-5, Monday to Friday grind. They look for all the shortcuts, don’t dedicate the time, and still maintain life the same as when they were employed.
You want to find one of the biggest killers to early-stage startup; it’s not the product, it’s not the wrong team, or the sales (although if you have no sales, this will kill your business). But being lazy, working Monday to Friday for 8 hours a day, getting the daily 8 hours sleep and spending 8 hours playing online games, or watching Coronation Street and Gogglebox will only end in pain.
I often say to my clients that if you’re doing something you love, is it work? And if you actually LOVE what you’re doing, why would you not want to spend every waking minute crushing it!
Oh but what about this work/life balance you ask, IT DOESNT EXIST! Honestly, it doesn’t exist. Sure if you want to live on an outdated system that’s 50,60 or even 70 years out of date, stick to the 8 hours work, 8 hours recreation and 8 hours sleep structure.
I have mentioned before that the work/life balance myth has been sold wrong, nothing can remain balanced for any long period, something has always got to give. You will at some stage need to sacrifice something, and as a result, something will get hurt.
What you should aim for is integration, integrate your home life with your work life, involve your spouse, involve your children, integrate everything together, let everyone important in your life share your journey. Look at the end of the day all you have is choices, and you have to live with the consequences of those choices, wouldn’t it be much better to live with those choices as an integrated family.
So the really honest approach to building success in your business is first to understand that you can’t run this ship like a 9-5 job, you can’t work just Monday to Friday, take the shortcuts and expect huge results. Ok, some very fortunate people may have enough discipline to make this work, but let me tell you this, they’re few and far between.
Now as a sidenote I’m not saying you need to apply 100 hours a week, eight days a week forever, you need to find ways to replace yourself and print more time, you need to build a team, a team that can start to give you back time. But unless you managed to pick up some investment for your business, or have some cashed stashed to help with your burn, you will need to realise that you’ve got to be ruthless.
Cut out the video games, cut out the trash TV, forget about that long restful walk on a Sunday that swallows up 5 hours of the day, you need to grind it out every day until you’re in a position to bring on board others to help.
One final point, if you truly love what you do, why would you not want to spend every waking minute working on it. I know I said that already, but it’s a serious point that you should be asking yourself. If you truly want to spend the rest of your life doing what you’re doing, then why wouldn’t you, and if not, then maybe the reason things aren’t working out for you is that maybe you’re not living from your passions just yet.
What to find out if you’re living from your passions? Book a free Success Call with me today. BOOK HERE >>