The Great Lie of Balanced Life

I have written at length about why work-life balance is a myth to successful entrepreneurs.

Yet every few months another unemployed person strays from the food stamp line to lecture us on why working too hard or too long or too intensely is bad.

Well, no shit sherlock, of course it’s bad. But if you’re stupid enough to go out and build a company of your own you’re already admitting that you think you can beat the odds.

There is no shame in having a job. Or career. No shame in working for someone else, whatsoever. Most senior managers and business owners have days when they’d trade places and be able to just work without having to make business decisions for something that will happen a few years down the road.

Entrepreneurship is a choice.

Building a business is a choice.

It is one you’re making on your own in order to do something amazing.

So if you’re going to go out of your comfort zone.. if you’re going to put your damn name on it.. if you’re doing this with no safety or backup.. if you’re going to have to come to terms that if you fail you fail all on your own.. if you’re going to put yourself and your family and your body and mind through this………….

…………. are you really going to start it off like a little bitch?

Because if the top of your list of concerns as a business owner is vacation time, time off, weekends off, comfortable hours and ability to separate your work from your life – you’ve already failed. You likely wouldn’t even be able to get a job – people who come into job interviews asking about vacation time and perks are quickly shown the door. But as a business owner? Are you kidding me?

Here is the what it’s like to run a business. You will work long crazy hours to save enough money to launch a marketing capaign. You will do dirty, nasty, disgusting stuff even a hobo won’t do: web site design, cable running, data imports, migrations. Then once you’ve got your marketing together you’ll go to a fire station and ask them how they work 24 hour shifts – how they nap, how they wake up instantaneously, how they deal with long hours and hard labor – because you want to be up at any time anyone wants to give you money for IT. You will take on work hundreds of miles away just to make things work because you’ve got an idea of where you need to be and the only thing between here and there is a little bit of effort. You can sleep when you’re dead.

If you think you’ve signed up for anything less than that – quit now. Click here.

Go get a job. Look for good benefits. Look for set hours. Look for set wage. When you can afford to spend more time at work just work harder and get promoted. When you’ve got other stuff going on, slow it down. This is why they call it a career – you move up or take a step back – but you don’t fall.

In entrepreneurship, there is no middle gear. It’s either off or it’s pedal to the metal.

If you don’t have to balls to live like that and love it then this is not for you.

And that’s perfectly fine and respectable.

But you can’t have it both. You can’t both not answer to anyone and have full liberty and profitability. You have to earn it.

Millionaires like me don’t get to talk about work life balance – it’s disingenuous. I can take time off to do stuff because there are a ton of folks here working while I’m asleep. Unemployed consultants can’t talk about it either – if you can take time off AND someone that needs you notices AND they don’t fire you then that’s kind of making it clear how valuable/worthwhile/necessary your business is. Neither of the scenarios are realistic of an entrepreneur whose small business is going somewhere.

If you’re a small business entrepreneur I have some advice: 1) Work harder, 2) Never let anyone make you feel bad about working hard, 3) Never lose sight of what you’re working towards, 4) Keep a log of sacrifices and accomplishments and review from time to time to make sure they are worth it and 5) stay on schedule.