One of the things that I and every entrepreneur I know falls into is working all the time.
The first year or two we are all scared, freaked out, and excited at the same time about building something big.
Then we start experiencing success and we are so excited that we want to work all the time to push the needle.
I’ve realized that this is what defines us as entrepreneurs, but one of the biggest things I’ve learned in the last few months is we all need to recharge our batteries every once in a while.
It doesn’t have to be a lot, but it is important.
I came to this realization through two things:
1) We completely changed our business model from Collarfree.com to Artistichub.com in Dec this year. It required not only thought, planning, but the commitment to what we really wanted. A business we owned the majority of. A business funded from friends, family, and close business associates not VC. Most importantly, a business we loved and had fun running. So we put a plan in place to build a company around our skill set, not just an idea and it’s working. Secondly, I started scheduling some planned activities to take a break so that my mind can stay fresh.
2) I read a blog post by Jeffrey Kalmikoff, co-founder of Threadless, titled “The 7 sins of success”. The excerpt that stood out to me was:
Gluttony
Spreading yourself too thin
I’ve made no bones about the fact that I love to work. As I’ve mentioned before, when it comes to work, I’m a hustler. The downside to this level of ambition is that it’s not complicated to overload yourself. I’ve learned that ambition minus realism often equals failure.
It’s intensely important to remember that the more you take on, the less energy you have for each task. If you leave yourself no time to unwind, your effectiveness will decrease, regardless of how ambitious you are. I used to take on a ton of freelance work on top of my normal workload. At a certain point I realized that I was selling the time that was essential to my success. My solution was to stop charging for freelance work. If a project wasn’t worth doing for free than it wasn’t worth doing. No one can afford my down-time.
After reading this post, I realized I was falling into this trap. I was always working but I was doing alot of work that was not directly impacting the business today. So I came up with 2 questions that I ask our staff or apply to every decision about our business:
1) Will this create revenue in 90 days or less?
2) Does this fit into our mission as a company or is it a distraction?
I found that these two questions made every decision easier. Also a friend of mine, Steven Cox the founder of Takelessons.com, told Pat and I. He said, “A lot of times its not all about figuring out what you are going to do, but about what you aren’t going to do.”
So by simplifying my focus I came up with several personal and professional goals to allow for balance.
1) Get up every day at 6:30 to do all our corp/admin work as needed before our staff arrives. Then commit every hour from 9-5pm working with our team to drive revenue and grow the business.
2) Play tennis a few days a week to exercise and release stress.
3) Learn the piano. ($20 for 4 hrs a week, 8 weeks. Community college is great 
)
4) Once a quarter take an inexpensive trip to see a friend or plan something fun.
These have been a mental savior and I believe have saved our company. We are better executors, growing faster than we ever did last year, and having fun. As one of my favorite clothing brand states – “Life is Good“
A trip this past weekend with friends to Temecula.
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