Work Sucks

Work sucks.. but someone has to do it. The more you care about something, the harder you will have to work. As I mentioned last night on my Facebook:

Problem with a lot of good advice is that someone still has to do a lot of hard work… and most people don’t want to.

This is the impression I’m left with after a few days of intensely interacting with partners of all walks of life and all levels of financial and lifestyle success. I’ll make this brief:

It doesn’t really matter that you have the best product. Or the best practices. Or the best people or the most money.. What matters is that you have a work ethic and a sense of awareness – for when you are wrong, for when you’re stupid and for when you win. People with the best products fail too. Rich people end up in the poor house. So long as you’re willing to wake up each day and make tomorrow just a little bit better than today and understand nothing happens overnight – you’ll do great.

My legacy in the business world is completely aside from my success as a businessman.

My success in business is directly attributable to the hard work, sacrifice and incredible streak of luck. As you’ve seen on this blog through the years, shit happens to me too (a lot), but my unwillingness to give up is what keeps me and my team moving forward. We didn’t get here overnight – it took over 15 years – and we’re still nowhere near perfect. But we work much harder because our objective is perfection – not an IPO or sale to someone or an exit strategy that I see so many of you worrying about. Worry about your clients, the rest will take care of itself! Screw them and you won’t have to worry about anything else.

My legacy is that I’ve given thousands of people the opportunity to better manage their IT business with Shockey Monkey. Much like Microsoft and many others helped me. I didn’t build this company on my own and I wanted to make sure that we have at least some piece of our non-transactional business contribute to the growth of the industry and it’s people.

The many lessons I’ve learned and the mistakes that took me there are on this blog in black and white. The only advice I have looking back is that if you’re excited and expecting it to be easy… business ownership is not for you. Having a job is not a failure and there are days on which I’d love to trade for one.. but if the only reason you don’t have a job is because you’re building something and firmly believe you can make a difference, get ready for the long hours. Success in business is not about you not working in that business anymore as so many dream, success is being in the business and being happy with what it does.

It really is that simple.

Love,

Vlad