April 10, 2006

Entrepreneurs Make More Money When They Play

Taking time off to play is absolutely essential as an entrepreneur. As I discussed in my last blog entry it is easy to become a workaholic when you love the work that you do.

When you love what you do it does seem like play. However too much of a good thing can make it go bad.

It’s like eating chocolate. Chocolate tastes really good. My favorites are white and dark chocolate.

I could eat chocolate all the time. And I know many of you are chocoholics and can appreciate what I just said. Even though I could eat chocolate all the time I don’t. Because if I did chocolate all the time it would no longer be special to me. It would no longer be a treat.

It also wouldn’t be good for my health to eat chocolate all the time either. I would become the size of a giant beach ball and wouldn’t feel well. The bottom line is as much as I love chocolate, it would probably kill me by clogging my arteries with fat.

So you may be thinking what does this have to do with work I love.

That’s a good question!

Even doing work you love can be too much of a good thing. You may get bored with it after a while start career hopping. You may all of sudden start to resent your entreprenuer business because you feel like a slave to it.

Humans are designed to have fun and do a variety of activities. Did you ever hear the statement: All work and no play makes you a dull person. It’s true. You must play. Play is healthy for you and actually expands your thinking and expands your life.

Play is essential to making more money in your business. So how much do I play and how often?

That depends on you.

I have cut my hours back significantly from what I used to do. When I started as an entrepreneur, I worked 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. After a while I realized that I was loosing money because I was not there completely and fully.

After I backed down my hours to 8 to 10 hours per day, 6 days per week, I noticed that my income went up. I felt a lot better about myself and I enjoyed my business even more that I did before. I also noticed that the quality of my work went up tremendously. I produced more in less time.

When I take the time to play, it gives my mind a chance to cool off. When this happens my best ideas come to me. By the way, entrepreneurs get paid for their ideas.

How much time and when should you play? Again, that’s up to you. Experiment and see what works best for you.

There are some days I take off the entire day. Sometimes I only work only 1 or 2 hours. Sometimes I work half a day. It really depends on how I feel.

What I noticed is when I am productive I stay with it. When I feel stuck I stop and go play. The interesting part is when I play I get unstuck. Imagine that.

I encourage you to test it out for yourself. Do different things, play, and have fun. Find out how much and when to play is right for you. That is what life is all about.

To Your Success,
Andy Fuehl