Enjoy the fruits of your labor
As entrepreneurs, especially black entrepreneurs, we have a tendency to work ourselves to death early on or until we die. Radio One owner Cathy Hughes pointed out to me during a recent interview when we leave our businesses to our children, by the time we leave it, they usually don’t want it. We have literally worked ourselves to death and not traveled the world or taken the time off that we should have taken just to have the business die with us. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen black owners work themselves to death by not taking care of themselves in the process. I must admit, running a business is addictive and at times it’s very difficult to walk away but you MUST find a way to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Don’t be in a position where you are not taking vacations, not have sustaining relationships, but just work, work, work. You’re an entrepreneur because you want the freedom to do what you want to do. It would seem, that would include taking a vacation and having a free time to do the things that you love to do but others can’t do because they’re obligated to go to work each day. I know someone, who works on a blog who puts in 16 hour days, he’s older, he never leaves home except to go to an event here and there that is related to his blog and he is very unhappy. He has not had a vacation in years, he’s not making a lot of money because he doesn’t focus on sales and his target is oversaturated so he has to work harder to keep up. I understand that fear that you think that if you leave, something will happen and you won’t be on top of it, but that’s the beauty of technology, Especially with a blog you can actually post from anywhere in the world with your iPhone. Life is too short not to enjoy being an entrepreneur and reaping the benefits.
