Comments on: Integration – The Struggle Between Your Business and Personal Life

By: Dustin

Dustin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:48:09 +0000

Thank you! I don’t have a family yet… but I have friends (or I think I still do). I haven’t been there for them nearly as much as I should. Thank you for the ‘slap’ in the face. I really appreciate ‘hearing’ that- time for a change.

By: feersDabe

feersDabe — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:16:03 +0000

Authentic words, some true words man. Thx for making my day!

By: Paul H

Paul H — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:45:37 +0000

As an entrepreneur I struggle with keeping that balance between work and spending quality time with my wife and baby. I’ve learned that there is a big difference between being home and truly being home. When any of us entrepreneurs are finally home, we should really be engaged with our families and their lives…not just working more from home. I far from perfect in this area. As entrepreneurs I think we should not work longer hours, but rather work smarter in precious hours we do have.

By: Joshua Steimle

Joshua Steimle — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:27:17 +0000

I think God blessed me with a slap in the face to wake me up from my entrepreneurial stupor. I spent my first 7 years as an entrepreneur working 80-90 hour weeks, pulling all-nighters all the time, sleeping on my office floor, and doing all the other “glorious” young entrepreneur stuff. I ignored my health (mental, physical, and otherwise), my wife, my extended family, and just about everything else that didn’t have to do with my business. And what did I have to show for it? I built up two mediocre businesses, rarely had enough money to make payroll on time, didn’t pay myself for four years, got into a few hundred grand in debt, and found myself living with my wife in a cramped studio apartment above a two-car garage.

Then I had some “life experiences” which thankfully didn’t involve anything really bad happening. I attended a wacky seminar and read The Four-Hour Work Week. That was enough to change my life (thanks to Blake Snow for the book recommendation, and Mark Browning for the wacky seminar recommendation). Two and a half years later I’m still digging myself out of the hole that took me seven years to get into, but man, life is soooo much better than it was. I don’t have the nice office with my sign on the building, but I work 20-30 hrs per week, spend time with my wife and 20-month old daughter, am losing weight and getting in shape via triathlons, pay off large chunks of debt every month, have time to comment on blogs, and am able to pay myself a decent salary.

And it all came down to that moment when I asked myself “What kind of life do I really want?” instead of “What kind of business do I want?”