image by barunpatro

Recently on Davette Harvey’s The Entrepreneur Zone, I provided the basics of business strategy.  Hopefully the listeners received glimpses of insight within our discussion, but my aha came afterward.  Davette and I were discussing the concept of holistic business strategy or business strategy that does not just cover business needs and goals but the goals of one’s personal life.  That is when Davette told me how she enjoyed having me on the show because I served lifestyle businesses.   Lifestyle business was not a term I had heard before but I quickly learned that it is in fact who I serve.

Some entrepreneurs begin their businesses to make millions.  Some do it to bring their product concept to market.  Some do it to serve others through their unique skills.  But the people I love to work with start their businesses to have the life they desire.  They no longer want to work by terms that are not their own.  They want to create the rules.  They want to define their work day.  They want to determine what success looks like to them.  And most importantly, they want to create a business that allows them to live life fully.  It is no longer working for a living, but living through one’s working.  As Davette said, “my work is play and my play is work.”  Work and business is not compartmentalized into a segment of the day and neither is one’s life.

How many of us feel like we are playing a role at work?  How often do we feel like we are changing hats to go into our personal life?  How often do we feel we need to hide part of our personality or stifle some of what makes us happy to retain our jobs?  Why can’t our personal and professional lives be one?  We spend too many hours of our lives working not to make those hours satisfying to our souls too.

photo by bizior

They can be.  The first step is for you to define what you want.  Read this again:  define what you want.  So often we believe we need to fit into the structures of existing businesses.  Why?  Why can’t we pitch the existing mores of the business world and create our own?    Take some time and write down what your business day would look like.  Where would you live?  When would you wake up in the morning?  Who wakes up next to you?  What do you do first – read the paper, exercise, or check your emails?  What do you do next?  What is the step by step progress of your work day if you could define it anyway you would like?  Be as descriptive as you can.  Really feel, see, hear, taste and smell what that day is like.  If you are starting your own business, ensure that this perfect work day is reflected in your business plan.  Create the business plan around the life you want to create.  If you work for someone else, how much of your perfect day can you have in your current position?  What needs to change to make your day as close as possible to perfect for you?

Share with us your personal lifestyle business description.

photo by Colin Broug

My lovely sister-in-law gave me the book What Have You Changed Your Mind About? It is a fascinating collection of the best modern brains and what beliefs they have changed over the years.  The topics discussed are vast from citizenship to mathematics and from evolution to friendship but all explore changes to their deep seated beliefs.  For example, Roger C. Shank use to profess in the 1970’s and 80’s that there would be Artificial Intelligence (AI) as intelligent as humans within his lifetime.  But in his interesting essay, he explains how he has reconsidered this notion.  Computers were designed by rules and methodical thought where humans do not know why they do things they do.  “We reason nonconsciously and explain rationally later.”  Therefore AI will not be able to mirror man until machines can make gut-level intuitive decisions.  I love the underlying concept of the book that everyone is still growing, changing, and adapting.  It reminds me of the old saying promoting change and adaptation, “the flexible willow tree bends in the wind but the hard oak tree breaks in harsh winds.”  So after reading through a few articles, I asked myself what have I changed my mind about?

photo by Mzacha

Thinking back, I was always focusing on being first or the top dog.  I wanted to be first chair in orchestra.  Straight A’s were a necessity.  At my job, I always wanted to move toward the top rung.  I had a belief that to excel meant becoming first; that success was based on achieving great heights.  And throughout my life I have reached some impressive heights.  I was the first student at my college to direct a main stage production.  I was one of three accepted into UCLA graduate theatrical directing program.  I produced and directed a world premier play in Los Angeles.  Even though these were major milestones in my life and could be seen as the top of the field, the successes were hollow.  I began to discover that the position did not make me successful.  It was not the HEIGHT but the DEPTH.  The Depth of knowledge, the depth of passion, and the depth it touched others.  It was not an elevated position, but an elevated joy for the position that brought success and happiness.  Sometimes the smaller things, the almost insignificant things, were really the most rewarding for me, and impactful for others.  Years after college, a friend told me that the support I gave him to try out for a play (an event I forgot) lead to the confidence to pursue his professional acting career.  Daily clients tell me the small aha’s I provide them in session make major changes to their lives.  And I have often found great joy in being second (or forty-fifth) in command.  My view has changed from pursuing happiness in advancement to finding happiness in deeply exploring everything little thing I do.

What have you changed your mind about?  What did you use to profess and live by that you now believe the opposite?  What are the cold, hard facts that now appear to have holes in them? Share with us what you have learned so that we can learn and grow too.