Entrepreneurs — You are not your company!
Yes, you read that right! You are not your company!
You might be the founder and nothing initially happens in your start-up unless you do it, but you and your company are not one and the same. There is more to you then just being an entrepreneur. You are a partner, son/daughter, mother/ father, friend etc. You are the sum of all your experience that can be transferred to your fellow entrepreneurs.
You are a person following a mission/ passion/ goal with limited time to live your life. You might spend a lot of time and effort on building your company and ideally you also want your company to outlast you. The time will come when you and your business go separate ways for whatever reasons. Your company might go on without you or you might go on without your company.
So why equate yourself with your company?
Don’t get me wrong, you are still trying everything in your power to make your company work. I’m not talking about the lack of commitment, but rather about the commitment to a higher, more strategic, purpose of working in a more sustainable way, which will also work better for your company in the long run.
There are days when your feeling of self-worth is directly linked to the state/ performance of your company. The work of an entrepreneur is very personal, so it is natural to feel personally impacted when our company doesn’t perform or someone doesn’t like our product or services.
But if you find yourself constantly being impacted by those kind of things it might be time to take a few steps back and look at yourself outside the business. Make time for yourself and the people around you, not just for your business.
Running a company can totally absorb you if you are not careful. So it is actually important for yourself, your family and for your business to make sure you have time and energy outside the business. Rest, relax, connect with family and friends.
The success of your company doesn’t automatically make you a successful & perfect person. And most importantly, the failure of your business doesn’t automatically make you a failure. You can have a healthy detachment and still work your behind off to make it work.
I understand that other entrepreneurs might have different views and that especially investors might require an absolute and 100% commitment to the company, but in my view it is actually counterproductive and certainly not sustainable for you as an entrepreneur (and remember I’m writing this for entrepreneurs, not to impress investors).
For you as an entrepreneur, it is healthier and more sustainable to have a stable social environment, and keeping your partnership with your family a priority also keeps you in balance should your company not work out. And if your company does work out but your private life is in ruins, would you consider that an overall “success”?
So remember — “You are not your company” — You are so much more!
