This from Jessica Hagy who does all kinds of funny, insightful stuff on index cards.

But the bigger point is, many people think (no, it’s beneath thinking, they just KNOW) that to run (never mind start) a company you have to work a gazillion hours, and it has to take over your life. I don’t believe that.

I do believe there are times when that’s necessary – but they are temporary. And I do believe a business takes over your life in the sense that it’s a constant presence – like being married or being a parent. But if it doesn’t allow you time to live from the get-go something is wrong.

Here are the usual things that are wrong.

1. You know (believe) that you have to work a gazillion hours and your business will take over your life. If you believe that you won’t see any other way to do it – even though other ways may be all around you.
2. You want to work a gazillion hours and have your business take over your life. OK in some cases this isn’t wrong. It’s a choice. But if you didn’t make the choice consciously there’s probably a problem.
3. You are an adrenaline addict, love to be the center of attention, love to be the rescuer.
4. Your business is not the right size for you not to have to work a gazillion hours.
5. You haven’t figured out how to teach others to do what you do.

The last two are problems that aren’t psychological so I’ll elaborate on them below.
Problem #4 – Let’s say you’re the owner and chief cook and bottle washer (literally) of a small diner type restaurant. One of that kind that are affectionately referred to as a “greasy spoon”. You probably can’t hire someone to do your job without losing money. Your business is not the right size. But there are other restaurants where the owner doesn’t cook. What size, or how profitable does yours have to be for that to work? It may not be possible in your current space, or with only one store or whatever. But those are all choices. You can decide to grow it / shrink it / serve a more profitable menu or not. Or you can stay the way you are.

Problem #5 – Let’s say you’ve upgraded the menu, added a few tables, changed the hours, whatever and it’s now profitable enough to pay someone to cook and let you have a bit more time off. But you can’t find anyone who can do it like you do. This is a very common problem with super-stars. It’s common in sports that great players make worse managers or coaches than more mediocre players. People who do things really well, are often not conscious of how they do them. So they can’t train others. But maybe someone else can help you do that.

My friend Nick, runs a deli. It took him a long time to realize that every time he walked by a refrigerated case, he stuck his hand into it just to make sure it was cool. That way if a compressor went bad, he knew before all the food was ruined. His employees didn’t do that automatically – why would they? But when he realized it, he didn’t make them stick their hands in the cases. He instituted a policy where twice a day it was someone’s job to take and record a temperature reading for each case. That took him out of the loop and actually gave a better indication of the health of the equipment than he had before. It’s lots of little things like that, that make you replaceable.

Takeaway:

“Has anyone given you the law of the offices? No? It is this: nobody does anything if he can get anybody else to do it. … As soon as you can, get some one whom you can rely on, train him in the work, sit down, cock up your heels and think out some way for the Standard Oil to make some money.”

- John D. Rockefeller

Rockefeller often came home for lunch, took frequent naps, spent summers away from the office and retired in his 50′s. Oh, and he was the wealthiest man in the world at the time (an maybe ever).
[tags] small business, entrepreneur, work life balance, CEO Skills [/tags]