Well, I’ve been waiting for the "thing" that would set me off and make me jump up onto my box. Today, an article landed square in my inbox that is worthy a Friday rant.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This being my first post on a brand-new blog purposed with the mission to bring results-based marketing tips, tricks, advice and resources to small business owners and nonprofit managers, we need to be clear about the definition of "results." The definition of both "results" and "revolution" will become increasingly clear the longer you hang around this place, but for starters: "results are the progression towards or achievement of a stated goal or goals." And we’re all about results around my place.
Now, back to that rant…one of the primary problems that I run into with my clients is their total lack of work life balance. Work is their life. Their business or their organization is their LIFE. So, one of the very first goals we help them set includes "getting a new life." We write marketing plans that include among their stated goals something like this: "Owners take two weeks of vacation this year" or "Owners have time to attend child’s Little League games." You get the picture. Enter today’s featured article:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/93/open_extreme-jobs.html
Sunday, November 7, 2004, was a slightly more energetic workday than usual for John Bishop, an investment banker on Citigroup’s global energy team. After working until 10 p.m. the previous night, the 31-year-old rose at 6 a.m. and headed to Staten Island to run the New York City Marathon. Three hours, 49 minutes later (a time good enough to rank him 6,363 out of 35,562 runners), he dashed over the finish line in Central Park, then headed home to sack out for a few hours before heading back to the office for a 6 p.m. conference call. An important presentation to a client in Houston the next day kept him grinding through documents until 1:30 a.m. But after misplacing some research materials, he was back at the office copy machine by 4 a.m. before heading to the airport for his 5:30 a.m. flight. By 9 a.m., in Texas, Bishop met with the client, then headed back to New York, returning to his office by 7 that evening for a few more hours of work. Feeling a little weary, he decided to knock off early. He clocked out at 10 p.m.
Sure, this was a little over the top, even by the notoriously excessive standards of investment banking, but it wasn’t so far off the charts that it earned Bishop any medals for heroism. "I might be a little skewed to the workaholic, but realistically, expecting 90 to 100 hours a week is not at all unusual," says Bishop, wantonly pausing for a cup of coffee late one Friday afternoon at a cafe near his office.
Wow.
This guy needs a dose of Results Revolution medicine. I mean, he’s so life deprived that he forgot how to live at all. But he’s not the only one. There are millions of entrepreneurs out there doing the same thing, and they don’t even know how or when it happened.
If you live like this, don’t worry. You’re not alone. We’ve all played that game. And we all feel like if we don’t do it for our business, no one will. But come on. There IS a better way. You can achieve work/life balance AND (yes, it’s true) earn gobs of money AND have fun doing it! Now, that’s the American dream…what good are the millions if you don’t have time to spend and share them?
