Twenty years ago today, our family embarked on the biggest adventure of our lives. We left Canada for what would be 26 months of living, sailing, traveling, and home schooling our three children Jocelyn, Kevin, and Allen while we sailed 5,000 miles in the Mediterranean on our sailboat Dragonsinger. As an entrepreneur, what lessons have I learned as I reflect on this milestone?
Many of us own a business so that we can maximize our flexibility. While a business can offer that, more often we need to be accountable in order to get to the ultimate goals we have for our business and ourselves. In this video I talk about three ways I think entrepreneurs need to be accountable in their business, so that they can get what they want.
Being an entrepreneur is lonely. There are very few people who understand what it is like to be an entrepreneur. The decisions that need to be made. The complexity of running a business. Staying alone can lead to isms like alcoholism, drug addiction, or workaholism. Even partnerships can be challenging—who do you talk to if you don’t get along with your partner? Learn more in this video about what it is like to be alone as an entrepreneur and ways that you can build your own support network to lean into.
Are you an entrepreneur that wonders about your drinking? I know that feeling. I wondered about my drinking for a long time. Being at events for entrepreneur I often felt my drinking alcohol was normal, because everyone around me was drinking so much. I still stayed in denial for a very long time. I even tried some controlled drinking, but that just made me obsess more about drinking.
Being a CEO of an established company with 10, 20, 50, or 100 employees means you are constantly encouraging others. As CEO you have to take responsibility for Vision and Strategy, including where your biggest markets are going to be. In an established company your role is primary focused on making the people who report to you and all the rest of the employees in your company successful.