Life is Too Short to be Unhappy
June 22, 2008 | General
Without doubt the greatest benefit about having your own home based business and not being tied to a job, is being able to spend more time with your family. I think that the majority of people who do work for themselves would agree with that. It is not usually about the money but the freedom that you get to do what you want to do.
I used to work from 11.30am until 9pm four days during the week and then one day at the weekend, so this restricted my opportunities to see my son play football during the winter and cricket in the summer. I particularly enjoy the cricket season as it is far more civilised to sit down with a beer on a warm summers evening (OK they are a bit few and far between this year) than stand on the touchline, freezing cold and being battered by horizontal rain.
It’s far more sociable as well and even the Friday training nights are an excuse to “go up the club” for a beer and a chat. And even though I am not seeking it, I often find inspiration or even direct business ideas come from the conversations I have. In fact once you get tuned into it you can get ideas and motivation from many situations that you are involved with in your everyday life.
Last Friday night I was talking to a friend that I have known for five years now through our son’s friendship and what he had to say greatly enforced my own opinions about starting my own business.
I suppose that he is more of an acquaintance than a friend in that we only really meet at our sons football or cricket matches but I like talking to him because he is always very open and honest.
I don’t know too much about his background apart that he is a very accomplished motor bike rider, “probably the best road racer in the UK without a major sponsor” says an independent profile on the internet and, until about 8 months ago, he was a self employed builder to facilitate his passion. I know from speaking to him over the years that he had to work a lot harder than other riders that have contracts with the major teams - riders that he regularly beats in competitions like the famous TT races. As well as maintaining high fitness levels, practicing and racing he had to organise everything that was needed for him to get to the meetings.
He had to get a bike that was competitive, arrange sponsorship and financing, organise a support team, make sure that he had enough spares and equipment, book himself into the races in which he wanted to compete, arrange travel and accommodation AND work inbetween to support his family.
Would he have preferred to have the quality equipment and facilities of a major team?
Yes of course he would and it was more frustrating for him because he knew he was worthy of a place in a sponsored team. For many years he raced and competed at the top level hoping to get the call from one of them. I once asked him if he had actually approached any of the teams to let them know that he was available and interested but he confessed that this was not really his style (and it may not be how it works in the motorcycling world, I honestly don’t know) - he believed that his performances should speak for his abilities. But I fully understood his mindset because this is how I had been in the corporate world.
I was never one to talk myself up or play the political game of self advancement. I believed that performance, results and capability should be the yardstick for promotion but of course this is not always the case, sometimes more subjective decision making comes into the equation. It wasn’t a question of naivety on my side, just a matter of personal principle that I wasn’t prepared to compromise myself on.
Anyway back to my friend. Last winter, after the racing season was over and after years of working for himself he went out and got a job. I don’t know the why’s and wherefores of why he got a job because I never asked, but it was obvious that he was not as comfortable with it as he had been as when he was working for himself. It was still within the construction industry and he had a regular income and a car but I could tell that he never seemed truly happy in having to wear a shirt and tie and working on paperwork and estimates all day. He also decided to take a break from his racing this year.
So I suppose I shouldn’t have been really shocked when he told me on Friday that, although he had given it a fair crack over the last eight months, he had decided that it just wasn’t him and he had gone back to working for himself. From another conversation that we had earlier, I think he just felt that life was too short to ‘put up with’ a way of life that he wasn’t happy with.
It is this philosophy that I so strongly agree with and the reason for which I left my long term and well paid job to start my own business. The two of us are not by any means unique regarding feeling discontented within our jobs, in fact the majority of employees feel this way at some time or another, but most people only see a choice of happiness or security and end up sticking with the latter. But you don’t have to sacrifice your happiness.
So he is back on more familiar territory and happier for it, but that is not the end of the story.
A couple of weeks ago and totally out of the blue he received a call from the owner of a team that want him to ride for them. Although still at the discussion stage, they will provide him with the quality machine, full support team and freedom to ‘just compete’ that he has been working to for the last fourteen years since he started racing. I was really pleased for him, just as I am for anyone who works hard and is dedicated to being successful in a targeted goal or objective.
Also it goes to show that you don’t just have to read biography’s of the rich and successful and other motivational books for inspiration, there are stories and examples all around us which we can draw from to give us confidence to achieve our own goals.
