I’m addicted to business. When I transitioned from the corporate world in 2007, I was exposed to a world where there’s a never-ending amount of learning and information to gather, and an untapped potential to become a business owner yourself. You can sit down with buyers and sellers and convert them, and there’s no shortage of it.
At that point, it becomes a game. To delink time and money becomes a puzzle to figure out. How can I maximize the amount of money that I’m making per hour by adding team members and value to the equation?
I love all of it, and after a while I was able to get to the point where I was only working in the business 4 days per week. My natural response when the pandemic hit was to take the ball and run with it, which wasn’t a great move.
Since 2007, I’ve wanted to see if I could build a business that didn’t rely on me, and I did it. The last 3-4 years have been decent, yet what I found is that I’m always spinning in my head and thinking about my business.
That’s not to say I don’t have a good relationship with my wife and kids - I definitely do. However, when I go for a run or work out, it’s an opportunity for me to listen to a book or a podcast. I’m always listening to something. There are nights where I can’t go to bed because I have something on my mind.
Someone challenged me to go for a walk without any technology once. No music, no phone, no podcast, nothing. I left my house, and before I could even get to the other side of the road, I was already thinking about taking a break and just being with my thoughts. I got emotional.
What I realized, and what was behind the emotion, was this pressure we put on ourselves as business owners and the mental rack space we are always using - we never give ourselves a break. The bible says to “be still and know that I am God”. Cease striving. What has happened since I’ve done that is I’ve been sleeping better and I feel less stressed.
Books and podcasts aren’t bad, per se. But you need to be leaving pockets of downtime in your day so that you can just breathe and take a break. The truth is, to be a better team leader, you have to do everything you can do to show up and serve your team and your folks each day.
