The sustainable entrepreneur needs two sets of goals

Entrepreneurs are not an inexhaustible, forever resource. For an entrepreneur to show up day after day, year after year, requires some strategy. As an entrepreneur, there is a tendency to strive for perfection by doing just one thing at a time. This luxury of being the best often requires sacrificing part of your personal life, leading to the old axiom “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.”

I don’t have any studies to prove or disprove that entrepreneurs have a higher number of burnouts, bankruptcies, divorces or suicides, but common sense would strongly suggest that any person living in an environment of high risk, continuous change and total accountability will experience high levels of personal stress. Play and personal time are absolutely necessary.

Much has been written about balancing one’s life. I have given this concept a lot of consideration and rejected it in favor of an approach advanced by Clayton Christensen, James Allworth and Karen Dillon in their book, “How Will You Measure Your Life?” Without stealing the secret sauce of this book, the authors conclude that balance, at least for the entrepreneur, cannot exist.

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The passion required to advance a new idea, product or service in the face of human nature’s preference for the status quo occasionally will need to be turned loose. Therefore, attempts to rein in the passion will result in failure to realize the potential of the opportunities. Being too timid can guarantee failure.

The authors suggest an alternative: Live two lives, one as your business and one as yourself. For each life, you need a set of goals, a strategy and a plan to attain them. This form of schizophrenia will create its own tension. However, rather than giving up a business goal in favor of a personal goal, or vice versa, a person may craft a strategy that enables both goals to be attained.

As an example, I chose to write this column knowing that it will take a certain amount of time in its conceptualization, writing and editing. I also chose to attend my youngest daughter’s graduation ceremony at Fort Meade, Md. I could have determined that I could do one or the other, allowing either my business life or my personal life to win. I could not balance my life by writing half a column or flying only as far as St. Louis. I chose to break the work apart and complete it between travel segments. Using the Internet, I then submitted the column from the road without having to stay home. I achieved both goals.

Similarly, a person may make an investment. The business goal may be to make the most money with success measured only in return on investment. However, the personal goal may be to solve a social problem within your community. It may be possible to do both. You may invest in a social enterprise that can make strong profits by solving a community problem. Finding this type of investment requires more work, but its ability to satisfy both business and personal goals is worth it.

You may want to spend money to advertise your business. Or, you may want to donate the same amount of money to a charity. One action meets the business goal. One act meets the personal goal. Balance would dictate spending half of your money on advertising and half in making a charitable contribution. Working with two goals, the solution may be to sponsor the charity in its fundraising efforts, thereby positioning your business to be seen by people who share your compassion for a particular cause. Again, some work is required to achieve an elegant solution.

You may want some new friends. However, you are working all the time and the only people you meet are your customers. Instead of cutting back on your business (although that may not be a bad idea if you and your life have become one), make friends of your customers. Engage them in supporting your business (this is actually the first step in building a crowd for a crowdfunding campaign) as advisers, spokespersons or salespeople. Your business and your personal life are two separate things – but you don’t have to treat them as mutually exclusive.

Take some time to create a set of goals for your business and a set of goals for yourself.  Consider the goals over your lifetime – a bucket list of accomplishments that gives you a sense of pride and legacy. Keep this list handy whenever you face a major decision. When that decision must be made, consider if it will advance your business goals, your personal goals or both! That way you can be an entrepreneur both today and tomorrow. 

Contact Karl Dakin of Dakin Capital Services LLC at 720-296-0372 or kdakin@dakincapital.com.