The other day I was reading an article about what they don’t teach you at business school. What caught my eye was the photo of that guy on the new tv show “lie to me”, which I happen to find an intriguing show. On occasion you see these articles. It seems these points are not just for business, they are life rules that should be taught, in any school.
- Dealing with people. Isn’t this one of the bigger challenges in life for most?
- Right or wrong? Right or wrong is a debatable subject, as what may be right for you, might not be for me. Fairness is it, or win-win, though mentioning that you want to do a win-win with someone, most roll their eyes. Actions speak louder than words, no? Prove it.
- Having a life. How easy is it to get caught up in your business and forget or ignore other parts of your life. Probably because you love doing it. Other articles also talk about work-life balance. Can that really exist these days? Life is moving so fast. I don’t think the work-life (volunteering-….) balance as people were used to in the past, for most of us is an option anymore, so many things going on. What is needed is a different type of balance. Also make sure one doesn’t go to extremes, and a family that helps works as as well. This can be another topic to discuss.
- Managing risk. As an entrepreneur, business owner you take many risk, you have too if you want to survive, grow the business. How do you live with that, or sleep at night? Trouble making payroll? A critical order to a customer on time? How to incorporate risk in your life? One thing will help I believe: understand the downside of the major risks you are taking.By the way, another great topic for a book: do you really need to grow a business constantly? We’re so used to expand and grow, but is that [always] needed?
- When to hold and fold. This would not just apply to business but many other aspects of life. There are not really magic formulas for stopping or going, though we certainly can come up with a few principles. Maybe that is part of your initial business summary goals? A tough one though, as you just know that success is always just around the corner.
Here is the link to the article.
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Great insights Mario, thanks for sharing. I'm particularly interested in people's thoughts about work-life balance. I, for one, do not believe that it exists. In fact, when I owned a $3MM business, I tried to find a book on it that would help me figure it out – and there was none. I believe that it is simply about prioritization and at times you will prioritize work, other times family. If you try too hard to balance it, BOTH suffer – take it from one who knows
I had to come back and comment again. Great post Mario! Honestly I have been thinking about it all day.
Every bullet point is something I could discuss with a friend or business partner for an afternoon. These are things that *all* business owners have to wrestle with. I'm inspired to write about each one actually.
This town has a rich community of business owners who could add a lot to the discussion – maybe end up producing a book out of the collaborative process? Imagine a book that covers each topic with a chapter, and each chapter is composed of essays on the topic from various business owners in Fairfield, or even the larger SE Iowa community.
I think managing risk is the most regularly ignored but most important factor in business. Most people have a general feeling for what is right and wrong, most can deal reasonably with others, and most will eventually begin enjoying more of life and spend less time at work as they become more successful.
Unfortunately we are not educating anyone about risk and reward involved in business. There is often more luck involved than any of us imagine, and no one seems to understand until it's too late that putting all of one's savings into a single endeavor isn't wise.
Work-Life balance is an issue I struggle with continually. I recently had the opportunity (an unfortunate end to a business that ended up in a 3 month summer vacation) to be at home and focus completely on family. After 2 weeks I found myself creating work, and slowly cutting out family time until I was back fighting the work-life balance issue by the end of summer – even though I was unemployed (making little income).
I've accepted that I am motivated by getting things done – by building things and executing ideas. It makes me happy, which is positive for my family, and I view it as a good role model for my daughter.
So in that light I now look at the relationship as harmonious, but that still doesn't resolve the issue of how to split time to make both successful.
One of the things that helps find balance is to reduce stress on both sides so they don't spill over into the other side. i.e., bringing work stress home to the dinner table, or taking the stress of getting out the door in the morning into work.
I agree that work-life balance these days is hard to achieve. A different angle might be to work on “work-life integration”. How can you integrate work and life together. It doesn’t mean you take work on vacation, but it provides a different, more flexible perspective.
I like the idea of essays. Real life situations and possible answers or better, viewpoints. There is often no 1 right answer.
Risk and reward, true. I would start off with understanding your own risk tolerance.
I agree. I even sounds more achievable.