Be One with Your Small Business
This is the ninth and final article in this series about small business fundamentals. This one is about happiness
It’s often difficult to tell where a small business stops and its owner starts. Truth is, there are times when being one with your business is not only a good thing, it’s essential.
But extreme commitment weaves a fine seam between business and owner, which can produce a kind of single-mindedness that too often results in danger for the business and unhappy humans.
If you became a small business owner to find financial success I’m not going to rain on your parade. As a capitalist, I admire that motivation.
But if you think being a rich business owner will make you happy, get your umbrella out, because wealth only provides options, not a guarantee of happiness. If you can’t be happy without wealth, you won’t be happy with it.
The best way to be a wealthy and happy small business owner is to be able to define success in more ways than just money and stuff.
A small business is more like a patchwork quilt than a gilded security blanket. Some patches represent good things and some not so good; some patches are about the business, others are about the owner, and some are hard to tell. The happiest small business owners are those who find a way to feel successful regardless of which patch is before them.
Having multiple touchstones of success helps keep the rough patches in business and life in proper perspective. For example, measure success as much by the professional development of your employees as your net profit.
Place as high a value on being able to attend a child’s school activity in the middle of the day as you do in getting a new contract.
And be as proud of giving back to your community – or any worthy cause to which you contribute time and resources – as you are of the reason you can give back, your business’s financial strength.
Just as man does not live by bread alone, entrepreneurs should not live by business alone.
Now let’s talk about fun.
Reasonable people disagree on where we will spend eternity, but most agree that this is our only trip through this life. And every moment that goes by without some kind of joy is an opportunity lost.
You’re no doubt planning for success this year, but have you made any plans to have fun?
Not your trip to Disney World. Are you having fun on any given day as you buy, sell, manage your business and make payroll?
The most successful business owners I know are the ones who have learned how to run a tight ship, while being able to laugh and have fun.
Here’s a flash: It is possible to run a successful business where the people laugh and find joy in their work.
And one more thing: don’t forget to laugh at yourself – in front of others. Those are usually the best laughs of the day.
Write this on a rock… Learn how to define success in more ways than just money and stuff. And don’t forget to have fun.
Jim Blasingame
Small Business Expert and host of The Small Business Advocate Show
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