Here's Why You Should Build Your Business Around

Success does not fall from the sky. It is a result of both hard-thinking and hard-working. I have learnt over the years that success is not so much about being successful in the job market, but more about being successful in being ourselves first. We have all heard the saying 'Work smarter, not harder'. Here smarter means: business integration with your personality and lifestyle. Most business people today realize the importance of product-integration and cross-selling among business divisions, but I would say hardly any of them combines their business experience with their personal lifestyle. Most people keep it separate. They still put their lives into little boxes or compartments. This is time for my work and this is time for my hobbies. They consider everything as being separate. Gentle reader, your life and your income will be dramatically improved if you realize the concept that being successful in being yourself is more important than the number of working hours you try fitting into your day. Enjoy and put love and passion into everything you do. Stop feeling like you are running on a treadmill trying to keep everybody 'happy'. Instead, fit your work around being yourself and you will discover that you have lots of energy and achieve more. Look at all the current great entrepreneurs and here Richard Branson comes to mind. He is totally himself first and foremost. He has integrated his work and his lifestyle. Just reading about his life in books, blogs and newspapers, you will realize that he is not bound by clocking into work from 8 to 5 every day. Whether he is at a lunch or an event, he is always 'working' He is never too busy to enjoy life, in fact he has even taken part in our famous annual Cape Argus Pick and Pay Cycle Tour last week. He is a good role model for young entrepreneurs today. He lives the slogan which says: Work on your business and not in your business. I repeat this slogan from time to time to affirm to myself that I always need to be aware to work smarter and integrate my business with my lifestyle like Richard Branson does. My belief is that one should stop putting one's life into little compartments. Namely: this compartment for business; this compartment for family; this compartment for friends; this compartment for myself. Instead I integrated them all. My friends become part of my family; my family becomes part of my business and so on. I think you get the picture- they all interlink. There is no fighting for time and attention. Although it is extremely hard to do at first, one has to make an effort. Try and stop constantly living around deadlines and to-do- lists. Once you have accepted who you really are and have found your own true purpose in what you do for a living, you will work with a natural energy flow. No longer will you rush trying to fit all your 'compartments' into the limited time you have put aside for each task. Material wealth should not be the reward for working hard and long hours, instead you should integrate those long and hard hours into your daily celebration of life itself, and you will begin to feel that the hours will become more fun. So be yourself first and then integrate your business around your own unique personality.