If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I just got back from a week island hopping throughout Greece!
I love having a trip near the end of the summer, as I find that no matter how old I get, Labor Day Weekend still comes with that “back to school” feeling. So, trips like these are a great way to unwind after the summer, and refresh and regroup before the busy fall starts.
One of my biggest takeaways from this particular trip, and what I wanted to share with you today, is what this trip taught me about entrepreneurship.
Growing up, I loved reading the biographies of notable entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, and could never refuse a book profiling the greatest creators of our time (The Tipping Point comes to mind). Through reading about entrepreneurship and great entrepreneurs, I now realize that I had gathered that to be an entrepreneur meant to struggle. The two went hand in hand.
Every book and story I read recounted the endless hours that successful entrepreneurs worked. It included the suffers of their social life, eating only Ramen, missing relatives birthdays, and other such sacrifices I had gathered were “required” to spend enough time pursuing their craft to make it work.
After this week, and looking back at my own journey…
I do not believe that you have to sacrifice and suffer to experience success.
This isn’t to make any other story “wrong”, but it’s important to not surrender ourselves to unnecessary stereotypes when our path is completely up to us.
After a week in Greece, earning passive income through automations I have set up, building my email list by the hundreds through lead campaigns, continuing to email and call my clients as needed, and most importantly, generating new creative ideas on island (perhaps the concrete jungle of Manhattan can be a bit stressful…) proved to me that I don’t need to sacrifice traveling and taking time off in order to succeed.
In fact…
It is essential to take time for yourself to achieve business success.
So long are the days and ideas that you must give up every other aspect of your life in order to be an entrepreneur. It’s a dusty stereotype and thanks to the evolution of technology and our understanding of personal development and health, we can kiss those days goodbye.
This is why “Intention” is one of the three main components of my coaching framework. It reminds us to bear the fruits of our own labor, and pursue success as defined by our terms, not society’s or someone else’s.
Really, what’s the point of making that money if you can’t enjoy it?
If I wanted to just earn good money, and didn’t really care the other sacrifices I would’ve had to made to do so, I would’ve just gone to law school and become a corporate lawyer.
But it’s not just about the money. Side hustling and entrepreneurship should be about the life transformation and empowerment it can create.
This life is our one shot.
Yes, we need money to enjoy it fully and live it out. But we also to still enjoy it and live it fully once we have the money!