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发帖数: 11198 | 1 6 Signs You're Sacrificing Too Much for Success
BY JOHN BRANDON
Business is going well, you're making all the money you need, and yet... you
're not happy. If any of these signs sound familiar, you might be
sacrificing too much for success.
As a founder, your job is never done. It comes with the territory of
starting a business that you'll need to sacrifice a little blood, sweat,
tears (money, time--the list could go on) to achieve success.
But at a certain point, if all you're doing is making sacrifices, perhaps
you're paying too high a cost for that success.
Check out the list below. Do any of these signs sound familiar? Maybe it's
time to rethink your priorities:
1. You sacrifice your family time for work.
I've lived this one. Using the excuse that you need to feed your family
might seem acceptable at an early stage, but it's still an excuse. Take a
serious look at your overall time investment. Don't count the hours you are
in the office. Count the hours you answer emails on your phone, the time you
drive to work, the time you spend thinking about work, and the time you
have left for everything else.
2. Your work and leisure time always intersect.
Here's one that is hard for me as well, mostly because my job can be fun at
times. Playing around with a new app on the iPad doesn't seem like work. No
matter which field you're in, it's best to figure out where the delineation
lies between actual work and actual relaxation. Sometimes, you have to be
intentional about this: take up tennis as a recreational sport because it
has nothing to do with your cooking business. While work is changing and
some entrepreneurs have to work extremely long hours to kickstart a company,
having no margins means you are not working that smart anyway.
3. You can't take time off.
I've been reading the book "The Everything Store" about how Jeff Bezos
became such a celebrity entrepreneur. In his early days, he had a cot in his
office in case he needed to sleep at work. (I bet he has better margins in
his life now.) If that's you, think long and hard about whether it makes
sense. Maybe in an early-stage startup it seems reasonable. But the truth is
that your inability to take time off from work is a sign that you have poor
boundaries. Someone is paying for that extremism.
4. You're constantly living in stress and anxiety.
There's scientific proof for this one. Constant stress is chipping years off
your life, and it's not worth the strain. By thinking about work from sun-
up to sundown, you are fixating your brain on one thing. Extremism at work
is a way to control the work, but it usually backfires. In most cases,
business needs time to grow and evolve. If it's 9 p.m. at night and you are
thinking about a sales meeting the next morning, then you don't have good
margins. If raking in the cash means a shorter life, live on less.
5. Your gadgets are always on.
I seem to always have an iPhone at the ready, which is easy to justify. But
letting the plastic gizmos die once in a while is a good thing. When your
phone or tablet is not available to you, it forces you to look outside once
in a while, to have a conversation with someone, to think about something
besides work. In science jargon, this is called sensory dynamism. When you
stare at the iPhone, you are only experiencing a few planes of reality. When
you look outside, you are seeing millions. Your brain needs a reprise from
the gadgets, and overuse is not advised.
6. You have no friends.
If the only relationships you have are at work, you might have a problem.
Workaholics have plenty of income and no social life. In some cases, that's
okay for a while. But take a long look at whether you are actively
developing friendships outside of work. True friends will tell you when you
are working too much; business colleagues will just encourage you to work
more because they reap the rewards. You might end up with a big successful
company, but life is about more than just financial success. |
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