The Enemy of Great is Good – Part 4

As we continue in this part 4 of “The Enemy of Great is Good” series I want to bring the subject to a personal level.  This time we will be discussing the separation of Business Life and Personal Life.

This isn’t the easiest concept to live by even though on paper is sounds so easy.  In our lives, and as entrepreneurs, we often find our decisions land in the middle since we share so much of our personal life with our business life.  The problems we run into, and sometime never even know they are problems, are easy to fix but take discipline to keep fixed.

The first issue is the separation of business.  By this I mean keeping your financial houses in order.  Do everything in your power to keep you business finances away from personal finances…or should I have said that the other way around.  It is very easy to look at your business and say to yourself “it’s all my money anyway.” While this statement may be true, for you business to grow and prosper you must treat is as a business. And though you are the owner, you must remember you are also an employee. It is a discipline to keep these two apart, trust me I deal with this one every day!

The second issue is the closing hours of business.  When your business is supposed to be closed, close it! Too often I find myself working well beyond the time limit I have placed on my business life and that’s a no, no! I can’t let my personal life suffer because I’m a workaholic.  Besides, my family is far more important to me than my business.  You must give yourself time away from business to clear your thoughts and allow your brain to organize the days’ work.  If you don’t do this then you overflow your brain and you lose thoughts and ideas. Did I mention burn out?

Whatever you make a priority will always dominate your life, for me that’s my family.  You must always remember to define your roles and responsibilities.  Then, you must live by them. It is a concept that sounds so simple, yet when you go to put this in practice you will see how just how difficult it is.

This is just the surface of the issue of keeping business and personal separate, but I hope it gives you a starting point for making changes and starting fresh.  But I ask you, what has been the most challenging aspect of keeping your business and personal separate?

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The Enemy of Great is Good – Part 3

So, in the last post in this series we talked about being involved in your local industry association and in your community. Today I want to bring you the second principle of being great.  This lesson again, was learned while helping my friend rescue his business.

Are you a Mentor? If not are you being mentored? You should have answered yes to at least one of those questions if not both. If you didn’t answer yes, then let’s work on a few things to fix this issue.  I bet you just asked yourself “Why do I need a Mentor?” Thankfully this is an easy answer. Everyone needs a coach; we can’t always see the things we need to fix or the details that are holding us back.  The best example I have is back in college while I was in music school. I had a coach that spent hours with me just hammering me on fundamentals. She constantly was yelling at me to fix my bow pressure, watch my finger positions, and to ease up on my wrists during my bow strokes. She drove me insane! In all honesty I was too young and too stupid to appreciate the lessons she was teaching me. However, I see now the importance of having that person standing by you, helping you fix the tiny details which build a better you.  We often get into a groove will performing our duties and working in our businesses, and this groove can lead to patterns and sometimes it can lead to bad habits.  The worst thing that can happen is we can be doing things wrong and not even be aware we are doing them at all.  This is where having a coach and receiving feedback and critiques can elevate you from good to great!

The second part is being a Mentor.  It doesn’t matter where you are in your business or your career you can always be a Mentor to someone.  Being a mentor is like being a teacher and I’ve always said to others “that if you truly want to learn something teach it.” Over the years I have been a Mentor to quite a few people and with every person that I have been involved with I have always grown personally and professionally.  Each experience was an opportunity for me as well.  I always found something I can do better or a new way of presenting an old idea.  Being a Mentor was and is one of my favorite passions.  I love to teach and I hope that shows in the classes I teach at the University of Texas at Arlington.  I bet some of my students would happily tell you about their experiences…right?

So from this lesson I want to leave with a thought. How far can you elevate yourself without someone helping you? As you think of this question also think about how far you could elevate yourself if you had someone always watching and giving you feedback on your business. So I ask you, what are your experiences with being a Mentor or a student?

You might also want to check out Preston Bailey’s Blog on this very subject http://www.prestonbailey.com/2010/07/to-do-the-gift-of-mentoring/