Do You Love It?

We live in an amazing time in the history of the world for all kinds of reasons. One of them is that at least in the United States, you can make a living doing just about anything you want. No one is forced to do anything, and almost all work is meaningful to the people who want to do it.

Entrepreneurs by definition are people who have a strong desire to work at something they're passionate about. Passion implies desire. So, if you're going to take the risk to be in business, devote the time required to be successful and make the many inevitable sacrifices.

Why would you want to do anything that you don't love to do? And yet this is the condition many business owners find themselves in.

Love What You Do

Nick Nurse is the head coach of the NBA Toronto Raptors. In his first year as a head coach, the Raptors won the NBA championship. Now, this wasn't Nurse's first rodeo. He'd already been in one NBA D-League Championship as a coach. Arguably, he is pretty good at what he does. He stands at the head of his profession. Nurse said that last summer after winning his second championship, "You can't do a very good job if you don't love what you're doing." Implicit in his statement is that loving your work is a requirement to be good at it, although that's not enough.

So why is it that entrepreneurs often become frustrated and lose motivation in their work? Is it possible that what drove them to start their business is no longer the thing they get to do daily? 

Find the Love Again

As business owners as the business grow, we find ourselves in endless meetings. In between meetings, we have to deal with employee issues. When we have a break from those we have phases to worry about vendors to deal with business partners' demands to meet in a myriad of other frustrating, irritating or demotivating demands on our time. When do we get to do what we're gifted at what we love to do? 

Nick Nurse doesn't recruit players. He doesn't deal with their off-court issues. He doesn't go to meetings with vendors or involve himself in things that aren't his core love and focus, coaching.

That's why he's a champion because he spends his time only on the things he's great at and loves to do.

Tips for the Entrepreneurial Journey

The entrepreneur can do the same thing, to build her business in the same way. But it does take discipline, and it takes teamwork. Here are some suggestions for making your entrepreneurial journey more effective and less frustrating. 

1. Get clear on what you love doing in your business and understand the things you don't love.
2. Make a list of what you're doing. Then estimate the time spent in each one of those activities. 
3. Set a goal to move your time to 80% doing what you love, and 20% the other stuff you have to do to.
4. Figure out how to offload all the things you don't enjoy to someone else on your team. If you don't have those people hire them or look for providers on any of the many online companies that provide for actual employees or services. 
5. Measure your progress quarter by quarter, and celebrate forward momentum, celebration is just so key to making great progress.