I mentor a few business folks and entrepreneurs and have always found it enjoyable. I love seeing an idea take shape and then refine it until we have a clear offering, market segment, and a plan to go from where we are to where we want to be. I’ve coached small business owners who want to grow, people who are just starting, and people who have nothing more than an idea. Some of the tools and processes we use change, but the idea stays the same. How do we convert the idea of “doing better” into a solid idea, create a measurable plan or set of steps, and then track our progress against this?
Seems simple enough, right? Well, it is, and it isn’t. I say this because every great business I’ve been a part of has been part science and data and part art. By art, I mean, what is that special piece that takes the product or offering from good to great? How does this product or offering inspire both its customers and those within the business? Inspired owners and employees create better experiences for their customers, build more efficient processes, and listen to feedback to refine what they are delivering.
But to be inspired, you can’t come in every day burned out. Those heroic pushes, when times are tough and long hours are needed, show strength. But they are not sustainable over the long term. I know many managers and business leaders who subscribe to the philosophy that more hours and more output means better, but in my experience, that is not the case.
The math is simple: if you can get X done in 40 hours, then if you work 50 hours, you can get X times 1.25 done. But that is often not the case, especially in the long run. Watching many entrepreneurs who can step back and remember why they started their venture, I have seen them come back with greater vigor and, most importantly, a fresh view to discover new ways of approaching old problems and unique means of adding efficiencies. So, taking a break, even if that means doing less, often helps create a better solution.
An analogy would be the Galloway method of running distance. This method teaches runners to run, then walk, then run again. The walk section allows the heart rate to drop and the body to recover, and simply breaks up the monotony of distance running so they can run faster during the run sections than they would if it was all one tempo. They lose some time walking and recovering, then return to their faster pace, so overall, they cover more distance for a set time. In addition, there are many runners who have been injury-prone, then adopted the Galloway method and went on to run injury-free for years. But a traditional view of running or management is that if you skip the walk and run at the same speed during that time, you’ll get there even faster. But in the end, it usually doesn’t work that way.
This brings me to today’s conversation I had with an entrepreneur I am mentoring. We got on our scheduled web call, we were checking in, and I could tell something was on her mind. So, with a bit of probing, she finally said that she’d like to take a break from working on her current venture. She has another already successful business, she has a family she enjoys but who all have needs, and she has other interests besides work. With all of this, plus trying to start a new business, she was feeling scattered and losing direction.
She was hesitant to tell me she needed a break because she worried that I would think she was a quitter or not serious about the new venture. As an advisor, I’ll be honest: this made me feel a bit bad that she thought I would judge her like that, but I understand it’s not all about me; some of it, maybe a lot of it, is more the social conditioning that says more is always better.
Once we got the idea that she was “burning out” into the open, we could talk through it. I helped her understand that saying she needed a break was quite brave. She was worried that I or society would judge her, but she still had the courage to acknowledge that she needed some time for herself. Her new venture is very cool, but for the business to be everything she envisions, it cannot be just rote‑checking of boxes. She felt dread every time she picked up the plan for her new venture now, not the joy and magic she once did.
As I mentioned, she already has one successful business started, so she has been through the process, and she knows it is not all sunshine and roses. There will be tough times and times when you will need to push through. But always just pushing through is not good. Most ideas work best when there is expectation, but there is also a feeling of accomplishment and success. Checking a box just to check a box is not inspiring, and you may be able to add it to your summary of what you did that week, but digging a hole and filling it back in really isn’t accomplishing anything.
So, we talked through what she was feeling, what else was going on, and whether this meant the end of her idea or just a pause. We agreed not to decide on the last piece. She is leaning toward a pause, and since I think the venture will be profitable, I’d like to see her pick it up again soon. But we both agreed it was only worth picking up again if and when it inspired her. Her idea can make money, but for it to truly be successful, it needs to add value to her life. Plus, while a churned-out product would be profitable, an inspired product would be much more profitable. So if she can take a pause, then come back and pick this project back up, she can have a business that provides more than a salary, and the resulting profits will be greater than just pushing through.
That sounds like a win-win to me. So please, have the courage to step back, whether that means slowing down or pausing your work completely. At the end of the day, you will usually find a better outcome for yourself with better profitability, less fatigue, and stronger mental health.
For today’s home improvement piece, I’d like to stick with the idea of stepping back to improve results. My wife’s daughter recently bought a home near us but didn’t like any of the bathrooms or the kitchen. I am helping to get things ripped out and reinstalled. It has been a lot of work but great for building blended family unity. That being said, at certain times, the work has seemed overwhelming.
There were days when I just wanted to sit on the floor of the gutted bathroom and cry. Those days were tough, but it helped that the rest of the family quickly got together and said we had done enough, and we’d stop for the day. Often, I would then go home, relax, meditate, or enjoy time with the family, and then a new idea would pop into the back of my head, and I’d have a new way of looking at a solution. Sometimes, that meant doing a bunch of online research and learning new skills, but it gave me a fresh way to approach tricky issues.
We are not quite done; we have one more bathroom to do, this one with its own challenges because of the house, but I am excited to tackle the problem. If we had continued to grind, family members would have snapped at each other and thinking about the new build would be excruciating. But because we allowed ourselves the space to work hard but step away when needed, it has brought the family closer together, and we’re excited to see how we can finish things well.