Those of you who are already high achievers in business may struggle with some of these concepts initially, because you may view your lack of balance as a key factor in the business success you have achieved.
You are surrounded with the fruits of your labor, and can easily point to these fruits as justification that being out of balance works to achieve success. I cannot and will not refute you on this point. What I am saying is that this same success can be achieved with balance and at a much reduced cost to the other truly important things in your life, and the lives of your staff or co-workers.
Have you ever stopped and looked at the empire you have created and thought to yourself that something is missing? You have reached great heights in business and stand on ground that a very small percentage of people stand on financially. However, how are the relationships that really matter to you? How is your marriage, and/or your children? I don’t mean what kind of material possessions do they have or to what kind of school you can afford to send them. I mean, how is your relationship with them? How about you? How is your health? How much of your active life did you sacrifice to have your business succeed? When you really look closely at the person in the mirror are you truly happy with who is looking back? I’m not afraid to pose these questions to you or anyone else because these are questions I have posed to myself. Would you give ten years of your life, meaning die ten years earlier, for ten million dollars?
Do not misconstrue my premise. I believe strongly in making money.
Trust me on this one, if you are incapacitated well before your time and death is imminent, you would gladly trade all of your business success to get your health back, or for just a few more precious days with your children. You will not lay in bed in your final days and wish that you had made more money or that you had worked more hours. You will instead ponder how you could have let this happen to yourself. You will reflect on how much you love certain people and wish you had spent more time with them.
Do not misconstrue my premise. I believe strongly in making money. I believe in adding to the economy, providing jobs, and creating abundance. Those are all good things. I just don’t believe that you have to sacrifice all that is truly important to do it.
Tomorrow is the final piece of the chapter and includes an example from Hiram Smith. “Live Full, Live Well” is available at www.balanceprofessor.com
