One major goal of every successful entrepreneur is to build a business that can eventually run without them.
We hire great people, develop leaders, create systems, and slowly remove ourselves from the daily operations. If everything goes according to plan, one day the business can continue growing without us.
That’s the dream.
The thing we don’t spend enough time on developing is ‘who are we without the business’.
I came across a Yale study that backed up what I was recognizing in many successful business owners.
The researchers interviewed founders who had successfully exited their companies. These were incredibly accomplished people. The median net worth was more than $30 million. They had built businesses, created wealth, and achieved what most people spend a lifetime pursuing.
And that’s not the interesting part…it’s what happened after they achieved everything they had spent their lives working toward.
Nearly 60% said they still hadn’t found a new sense of purpose or identity after leaving their business. More than forty percent weren’t happier, even after reaching the finish line they worked towards for so many years.
Here’s the real issue; your value isn’t tied to your business. Somewhere along the way, it’s easy to stop seeing the business as something you built and start seeing it as who you are.
When you have a great quarter; you’re winning. When you have a bad quarter you feel as if your value has goes down. Business is thriving – up! Business is down, you begin questioning yourself.
Your value is then calculated by how much revenue or growth you produce instead of the person you’ve become along the way.
I’ve had this conversation with myself recently. “Am I building a great business…while also building a great life?”
Because those aren’t always the same thing.
Your business can be growing while your relationships are drifting. Your company can be thriving while you’re slowly feeling lost or lacking passion.
The good news is that this isn’t something you figure out after an acquisition or an exit.
You start figuring it out now. While you’re on the journey.
This also reinforces balance which helps you create from a powerful place.
So, the answer is to continue investing in relationships that have nothing to do with work. Develop interests that challenge you outside your career. Make time for the people who would still love you if your title disappeared tomorrow.
One day your business will change or you may want to step away to focus on other adventures. Your next chapter will come.
When it does, I hope you’ve spent just as much time building the person who’s going to live it as you did building the company that made it possible.
