Why You Don’t Always Have To Love Your Business
In this video, I share why your business doesn't have to be fun all the time, and how to alleviate the pain of entrepreneurship by letting go of your expectations.
Your business can just be a job.
Seriously.
It doesn't have to be your soul's calling.
You don't even have to be that successful.
We’re often told that entrepreneurship is about “building a life and business you love."
Sounds pretty great, right?
It certainly sounds better than:
"Painstakingly build and re-build a life and business that most of the time meets your needs but other times feels empty and you're just grateful to be reading Harry Potter at the end of the day."
There's a lot of pressure on entrepreneurs to be beacons of happiness and success.
If you're not on a beach in Bali helping Oprah connect with her inner child...you should probably just give up now.
I mean...do you even coach, bro?
Or if you haven’t automated and delegated every last thing in your business, you obviously aren’t a real entrepreneur.
I mean, you’re basically no different from a 9-5 idiot at that point trading time for money.
Here's the truth, though:
No job is enjoyable 100% of the time.
And it turns out that making a business run without you isn’t always so simple.
I’m sure even Tony Robbins wakes up some days like, "Fuck this shit. I simply cannot unleash the power within."
That's okay. Work isn't supposed to be this everlasting source of passion and inspiration.
In fact, it is this expectation of work that makes us miserable.
One client forgets to write us a testimonial and we decide to change our entire business because of it.
We’re like, “OH NO! I MUST HAVE CHOSEN THE WRONG NICHE!"
But what if it was fine for things to be a pain in the ass sometimes?
The root of the word passion is passio, which means “suffering.”
Instead of trying to eliminate the suffering of entrepreneurship, what if you found meaning in it?
Or what if, and I know this is radical, you didn't rely on work to create meaning at all?
What if you created an actual life outside of work?
What if you found...a hobby? What if you did things...with friends?
Look, there's nothing wrong with wanting to improve your business.
But have you ever noticed that no matter how much progress you make in your business, you never quite arrive?
When you're just getting started, you think: "If I could just get one paid client, then everything would be amazing."
But once you have one client, you suddenly want a full client roster.
And then, when you get a full client roster, you want a million dollar business.
It's sort of like the hiker who reaches the top of the mountain, only to reveal a higher peak just beyond.
Of course, this is part of the excitement of entrepreneurship. There are always new challenges to overcome.
But I'm not here to give you a pep talk about "enjoying the journey."
Truth is, entrepreneurship is a pain in the ass.
As soon as your marketing starts working, something breaks on the client delivery side and you have to go deal with that. And then you're so busy helping clients get results that you forget to market.
One way to make this less painful is to accept the fact that your business, like your life, is constantly evolving. Any equilibrium you achieve is temporary.
It's like this quote from Brent Beshore: “All businesses are loosely functioning disasters, and some are profitable despite it."
I think we'd all sleep better at night if we let go of the idea that by changing our business, we'll somehow become happy.
Same thing with starting a new business, or working for someone else. The grass is always greener.
Even people who sell their business for lots of money often become restless and depressed.
There's no way out.
Perfect bliss does not await you at the next business milestone. Just more suffering.
When we truly accept this, we're free.
And weirdly, maybe that’s the freedom we’ve been seeking this whole time.
If you liked this video, I hope you’ll consider sharing it with a fellow entrepreneur who needs to hear it.
