Have You Traded Your Soul For Your Business?
On my ChicagoNow, It’s A Small Business World Blog, one of my readers made a comment that I need to repeat here:
“Isn’t this what owning a business is all about? Taking the risk – with your money, time, your soul? We live and breathe our business, have invested just about everything we have in it. Too bad more people didn’t know that most small businesses give everything to their business. Would customers think twice before asking for a deeper discount or one more add-on. Would a bank look at the investment made by the business owner to keep the doors open?”
Entrepreneurs invest more than money. We invest more than our time. We invest our soul. Until I read this, I never realized that I invested my soul or maybe I really traded my soul to see my ideas succeed.
Trading your soul. This is why the success and failure of running one’s own business has such an impact. We dream about our business. We pray for our business. We live our business. The result matters.
What do we trade our soul for? Money? Prestige? Our Family? Power? Not me. I traded my soul for my business so I could see my passion succeed. I traded it to see my ideas and vision become a reality. I traded my soul to make a difference in this world through my business.
Do you think small business owners trade their souls? Have you? How?
Barry,
I traded my soul to get more freedom and control.
I was also quite sick of creating wealth for others.
The Franchise King®
We didn’t trade our soul when we opened up our business… we got it back! The corporate life took the light out of almost every day…not knowing who was playing politics with whom, were we being merged again, who was being layed off, did someone notice another gray hair… the list goes on. Owning our our business, running it with integrity has made everything easier…except the cash flow! We found our souls again in our business
Barry, I quit corporate life because I got fed up working with people with no sole.
So I set up my own thing, found something I was passionate about ( the health and well being of children) and went for it. Everyone said it couldn’t work, wouldn’t work.
Soul gives you the energy when you have none. The strength, the energy, the enthusiasm to persuade people that maybe you are not as mad as they first thought and that you might have stumbled upon something that could be great.
The challenge is to find like minded soles to join you on the way… Oh yes and a sense of humour helps!
Glad we are finding our soul in our businesses! That is important!