No B.S. Business Success In The New Economy. Dan S. Kennedy

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      GOOD NEWS! There are Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle^™ Chapters meeting regularly in over 150 areas throughout the United States and Canada, facilitating exactly this kind of support for more than 10,000 entrepreneurs every month. You can find a Directory at DanKennedy.com, or if you take advantage of my Free Gift Offer on pages 272–273, and there is a Chapter in your area, you’ll automatically receive an invitation to a meeting.

      Unfortunately, you are going to discover that the majority of nonentrepreneur civilians have a number of set-in-cement biases against and frustrations with you, the entrepreneur. Here are some of the big ones you’ll run up against.

ACCUSATION: You’re a Workaholic

      Most entrepreneurs I know experience great conflicts between their commitment to business and other aspects of their lives: marriage, family, civic activities, and so on. Having two failed marriages in my background, I’m hypersensitive to this conflict, and I’m always working on ways to handle it more effectively. The fact—and it is fact—that the line between “work” and “play” is thoroughly blurred for the true entrepreneur, and the corollary fact that the entrepreneur’s business life is often, frankly, bluntly, more important to him than his personal and social life is a huge source of befuddlement, annoyance, and tension for those around him. If you read a lot of biographies of great entrepreneurs, you’ll find this a common thread. Read the Buffet bio The Snowball just as example. The vast majority of people casually familiar with Warren Buffet view him as a kindly, wise owl, an elder statesman, a pater familias for investors. But being married to him or a child raised in his household would, if this book is to be believed, give you a very different sense of the man.

      It’s convenient and easy for others to label the determined, passionate entrepreneur as a workaholic—a diseased, neurotic addict guilty of neglecting non-work responsibilities, of not loving his or her spouse or family, of being a self-absorbed ass. It’s convenient and easy, but overly simplistic, and certainly not very helpful.

      In reality, the constantly working entrepreneur may be saner and happier than the critics. Most people detest their jobs, yet they continue going to them day after day, month after month, year after year. They spend the lion’s share of their lives doing things they find boring and unfulfilling, but lack the guts to do anything about it. They live for weekend escape. They spend five days a week as prison inmates and hope for two they may enjoy. Isn’t that sad? By contrast, the successful entrepreneur manages to create and stay involved in work that is so enjoyable and fulfilling that he no longer thinks of it as work, and that provides exceptional financial rewards as well.

      The lovers, friends, parents, and others who throw around the workaholic label secretly resent their own “stuckedness” and try to make themselves feel better by attacking you, by making you feel guilty or odd.

      We could dismiss the critics as jealous, resentful, and unreasonable just as easily as they label us as workaholics. However, no one wants to go through life married only to a business in general. We need mates, family, and close friends. And they won’t all be involved in our businesses or even in business. We don’t get to choose our families and, besides, some diversity in social life is healthy and necessary. So, better understanding of ourselves and others, recognition of the special problem we present to others, and creative efforts at preserving relationships are all very important.

      The Blurred Line