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By Mike Michalowicz, Author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
Be honest. How many times do you hit the snooze button before you roll out of bed in the morning? Two? Five? Seventeen? If your butt is dragging every morning chances are you aren’t in love with your business, which means you have to either get the magic back or find something new. Pronto.
We live in a culture that claims to hate Mondays and live for Fridays, so it’s no surprise that you would think dreading work was perfectly acceptable. Listen up – it’s not! If you count yourself among the disgruntled masses that can’t get it up for their business you’re in the wrong business. And if you stay in that business anyway, it’s going to suck.
Successful entrepreneurs can’t wait to get to work in the morning (if they left the office at all). Sprinting from bed to shower, they trip over their laptop, leaving a trail of big-idea post-it notes behind them. All right, all right. Maybe they don’t sprint. But you get the picture. They love their business, and they have the rockin’ bottom line to prove it.
If you’re going to make it to the big leagues, you’ve got to have some serious love for your business. Otherwise, how are you going to make it through all of those all-nighters? And what about roadblocks, hurricanes, and abject failures? What are you going to do when the inevitable tough times come waltzing in to your happy start-up? Without the love, without absolute passion for your business, you’re likely to bail at the first sign of trouble, dust off your resume, and start looking for a “real job.” And I know you don’t want that.
When you love your business you wake up energized and ready to roll – maybe not every day, but most days. You enjoy your work and generally feel pretty good. Happy, even. Other people feel inspired by you; they want to be around you. Heck, they may even want to date you. You have tons of energy, and are often working so fast and so hard that even when you have to hit the can, you hold on to the last minute before you pee your pants.
If that description sounds like a fairy tale, it’s time to check in with that master plan of yours. Something isn’t right. If you’re brainstorming new and creative ways to play hooky rather than brainstorming new and creative ideas for your business, it’s time to get real or get going. Maybe both.
It could be you need to find a new way to love your former flame. Maybe you just got off track and you just need to get back to what turned you on in the first place. Or, maybe you and your business are mismatched and it’s time to part ways. Whatever it is, you have to figure out why you aren’t feeling it anymore.
So what would get you out of bed in the morning?
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Recent Comments
14 RESPONSES TO "IF YOU CAN’T GET YOUR BUTT OUT OF BED, GET A NEW GIG"
I couldn't agree with this more.
If you don't love what you do, find something else to do.
Life is too short to be doing something that you are not passionate about.
Sometimes I think my dream job involves a lot of travel. I can never sleep the night before a big trip (whether it be vacation or business related).
So maybe I'm a road warrior. Maybe I need to find more ways in my current position to get out and travel.
Great post! Thanks for contributing.
Passion is the key to everything. You can tell when someone loves what they do. They show it even without speaking!
Just half a note for other readers---just keep in mind that you MAY be hitting the snooze button because you just don't do mornings...I LOVE my job, but there is nothing that makes me happy to get out of bed before 10am, no matter what time I got to sleep the night before. You may just be wired that way.
If you've got a job that you love, thats great! If you can actually make money doing what you love, that's great too! But I think sometimes we need to grow up and realize that maybe our job is never going to cross paths with our passion. And if you have bills, a wife, a kid, and retirement to pay for, then you just have to suck it up and do your job.
Now, you should do it well, and give your employer what he's paying for. But save time for the stuff you truly enjoy. You family, your hobbies, your friends. Don't give your employer one cent more of work than he deserves, especially if your job is not your passion.
Not everyone can make a living off their passion. If you can't, you're not weird for not quitting your job. You're practical.
Take your passion where you can get it.
I so agree with Scott M! You sometimes have to sacrifice yourself to your family, and suck up do the job!
@ Scott and Ellen - hope you enjoy life in the cube. Meanwhile, the rest of us will obtain success you will never know. I'm glad there are people like you because someone has to be a drone!
My mom always yells at me, "Sometimes you have to do what you don't want to, to get where you want to get to." She has a point but I'll be damned if I'll stay there longer than needed, especially if that less than ideal is not in line with my goals.
I have a family as well but we all focus on helping each other find the passion in our work. I mean 40 hours out of your week is a lot of time to waste for money. When it comes to owning your own business I totally agree with needed passion, drive, and an intense belief in your awesomeness.
There's nothing wrong with "sucking it up" but when that is the goal of every day, why not find something that will bring back the excitement you once had. You just gotta be creative, smart and plan for such an event.
@Anonymous, not everyone defines their own success the way you do. Scott M and Ellen may feel tremendously successful in ways you're not seeing. What matters, ultimately, is if we are successful our own eyes, in ways that matter to us as individuals.
The world is a big place. There's room for more paths than yours.
I understand where several of you are. I just don't think that you have to settle for the rest of your life and "suck it up" at a job, even if you kind of like it. For some reason the standard formula of go to college, work 40-45 years, then pray for a decent retirement doesn't seem like fun, nor is it financially possible.
Most people don't make enough over their lifetimes to afford a comfortable retirement like generations before us. Unlike our grandparents, there won't be a government, corporation, or magic carpet to take us on a joy ride through retirement.
More importantly, I beg the question: why do you work in the first place? For money? Because someday you want to work your way out of a job? I believe we all work so we can get to the point where we don't have to worry about money and have the time freedom to do what we want, when we want, with who we want. Some people retire in their 30's while others can't afford to until their 70's. What's wrong with this picture?
I believe entrepreneurship is the best option for long-term health, wealth, and happiness. Our economy was based primarily on entrepreneurship 100 years ago, so why do we now feel like we can't survive without big business?
That's very true. Most people are holding on to their jobs for economic reasons. Working with passion because you like what you do is the ultimate.
"I just don't think that you have to settle for the rest of your life and "suck it up" at a job, even if you kind of like it."
Then don't. But there's a difference between saying "That's not for me" and "you're living your life wrong."
Tell me this: why does everyone have to feel about their job the way you want to feel about yours? That doesn't make the slightest bit of sense.
Kate summed it up nicely. Thanks Kate!
Yup, I should've anticipated the usual, "You ain't shit unless you're an entrepreneur, dood!!!" sentiment that always seems to come out of posts like this. If you are lucky enough to have a a job/startup that you're passionate about, great! If you have "just a job to pay the bills", do what Scott M said: work hard, make your money, but make sure you have time to enjoy the other things in your life.
Also, if you're trying to pimp the lifestyle of an entrepreneur, you may want to downplay the sleep deprivation and incontinence that you seem to encourage. My dream job doesn't include wearing adult diapers so I can work longer hours.
GOT SOMETHING TO SAY?