Vlad Mazek – Vladville Blog

Off topic: I hope you’re having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. If you’re outside of United States and don’t celebrate the Memorial Day allow me to share the following as a recently naturalized american citizen: You’re welcome for us saving you savages over and over. From Ghengis Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon and Osama Bin Laden. #AmericanHistoryFTW

Now on to the topic. Last time you tuned into Vladville we discussed the fallacies of Work Life Balance and the popular opinion being that it’s an absolute requirement for the life, body and soul. I totally agree. Balance is a beautiful thing. Go to college, get a great job, meet a beautiful boy/girl you fall in love with, have babies, live happily ever after.

If that works out for you like that, fantastic. Fuck you, you lucky bastard. You can stop reading this right now.

If on the other hand you decided to build your own company and have a dream of one day being rich or building something incredible – your life balance formula is far less magical. And that’s OK too. I wish you all the success in the world and I encourage you to focus and work hard to make your dreams come true. Most people cannot understand the drive, the passion and the sacrifice that it takes to make something out of nothing. So when stay at home moms lecture you about how much time you should spend with your kids, when old men tell you their regrets and unemployed people offer suggestions on how you should manage your life – remember that nobody gets to live your life for you. And nobody gets to criticize it either.  There is no shame in hard work, long hours, sacrifice – it’s a part of life and so long as you can justify it to yourself and your stakeholders. Your life is not something you take feedback on. Don’t listen to unemployed people who think they have a better quality of life than you do – if you’re building a company you’re doing so don’t become a guy sitting in his basement writing memorandums. If the old men and women have regrets about how they lived their life that doesn’t mean your wife is going to leave you or that your kids will hate you and that your social circle will kick you out – it just means they messed up somewhere along the way – and I bet you they learned something in that process too. You will too.

To sum it up: Work and life balance is only something you can strike. Sometimes it’s gonna look pretty ugly. If you know what you are doing and why you are doing it then nobody elses opinion matters.

So if you’re building a company… how do you know when enough is enough?

There are two schools of thought on this subject.

On one hand you have people who have a number in their mind. They need to make $100,000 a year or $250,000 a year in order to maintain some standard of living. For some it’s not even a number – it’s a matter of having a 4 week vacation and a new BMW every 24 months. For some the number is simply “more” because life is a video game and he who dies with the highest score wins.

Then there is that other group that isn’t primarily motivated by the economic fundamentals of monopoly. Not that money is irrelevant, it’s just that it’s not the thing that makes them show up for work and stay 10 hours after their shift ends. I’m in this group.

So what’s the right answer?

If you are motivated by money or the number.. the answer is quite simple. Look at your original business plan. I bet you whenever you decided to start this entrepreneurial journey you had written something down (god please say yes).

Every year you should be making revisions, projections, etc. If numbers are what drives and justifies you then this is an annual process. Heck, even if that’s not key every business deals with the numbers.

What number is realistic, enough, sufficient, etc.. that’s all up to you. I know people who are glad to be making $50,000 and I know folks that are beating themselves up because they can’t cross the $5,000,000 mark. The right answer depends.

One of the first things I learned in economics is the concept of time value of money and the social (motivational) impact it has on workers. Slightly paraphrases but here it goes: When you start at the bottom you’re motivated to go to the next level so you’re willing to forgo benefits, vacations and perks in order to gain promotions and bonuses. But as people move up and gain more money they are more interested in the pleasures that money delivers (whatever they are) and they start to take more time off, turn to vacations, perks etc.

As far as the economists are concerned, in the long run the numbers become less relevant. Which makes it so much more important to keep the numbers in check.

So it’s important. But the answer is up to you.

Great, so when can I stop working?

It’s up to you.

Some people stop working when they hit the number.

Some people want to sell or do an IPO.

Some people stop working when they hit a business milestone.

Some people stop working at a certain age.

Some people stop working because it’s not up to them. Sometimes family gets in a way. Sometimes the 5-0 smells a strong chemical smell from your garage and busts your meth lab. Gotta get a better air filtration system.

There are two big points here: 1) Nobody but you decides when you stop making money, working or putting in effort unless you’re under 18 and momma flips the switch and 2) The “stopping point” will change over time.

What do the others think?

I’m blessed to have a lot of friends. Here are their opinions. If you’re reading this and not my friend on Facebook hop on: http://www.facebook.com/vladmmd

Here is what I asked:

Loooooooooooooooooots of questions about yesterdays post on Vladville.. Writing a followup. So here is your chance at fame since I’ll include any comments on this topic in the blog post: “When do you have enough and how do you start pulling back?” — my opinion is you look back at your business plan and where you thought you’d be when you started and then you revise and update your plan. What’s your thought, how do you know when you’ve made enough money and can shift from growth to maintenance mode?

Lee Mackey
The biggest challenge isn’t what you have now, it’s where are you going to be in 10 years with our government and corporations. What’s the next crisis that will pop up because of greed. Will your plan actually make sense? Are you smart enough with investments tat make sense and don’t require you to keep working till you’re 90? Did you marry some crackhead that takes everything you have and now the accounts have pennies.. The question is, how do you plan for the unknown?

James Riley
Been contemplating this one for the last few months and I’m thinking that, if you’re the kind of person that built something from nothing, I’m not entirely sure you’re the kind of person that can ever do something in “maintennace mode”. At that point, it may be less about the money and more about hte challenge to make it over the next hill. Just my $.00002 worth.

Rich Walkup
There really is no such thing as maintenance mode if you want to continue to be successful. If you stop striving for growth, it won’t be long before your nearest competitor overtakes your position. Running a business in maintenance mode is essentially running a business in failure mode. It might not happen next week or next year but its demise is pretty much a sure thing.

Xavier Canez
Never half step…nuff said.

Andy Trish
maintenance mode may be forced upon you by multiple forces Rich, that doesn’t stop you striving for growth, it simply lets you take stock of where you are now and where you want to be. Vlad is referring to comments I made yesterday. at what price is enough? Why with all his money does Steve Balmer, Bill Gates etc work for a living? what are they striving for? does an entrepreneur have to work till they die? lets say with 10 billion in the bank, would you retire / sell up and enjoy your life in other ways or is that not enough?. how many houses and nice cars will it take before that gets boring?

David Valencia
?“Maintenance Mode” is a euphemism for, “i’ve run out of ideas,” or you’ve hit the limits of your sales & marketing capabilities and you aren’t going to reinvest your slice of the pie for continued growth because you are too comfortable. This behavior is what distinguishes lucky do it yourselfers from true entrepreneurs.

A true entrepreneur understands that a business plan and sales & marketing plan must be reviewed and revised on a regular basis in order to keep up with or stay ahead of the competition and natural attrition that comes from inflation, the cost of money, and market changes. If you do not go forward then you will go backwards.

True entrepreneurs also understand that they are good creators but not necessarily the best managers. Therefore, good entrepreneurs aspire to substantial growth that allows for the addition of employees that will do the daily grind while he/she focuses on growth and diversification. True entrepreneurs never get comfortable nor do they aspire for the maintenance mode–they need to keep creating.

Norbert Doeberlein
The goal: do whatever it takes to continually run your company debt free!

Ted Roller
Maintenance mode is what happens between selling your business and the the next thing you do.

Jay Edlin
Enough is when you wake up in the morning and you don’t get satisfaction from what you do, no matter how much money. At this point you have to look to change it up and make it exciting again or sell your business before it declines and find something else to do if you can. Going through the motions or maintenance mode will lead to a decline in business and loss of value. I’ve been there and as a result changed it up.

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.