NFIB

Perfect Balance
09/ 29/ 2003

by Rex Hammock

These days, what small business owner doesnÆt believe he or she is juggling too many responsibilities? We all know the importance of balancing home and work lives, but our efforts to "balance" often turn into more weight all around.

I hesitate to whine about working too hard when I know others without a job. As are most small business owners, especially those who have run successful businesses for many years like the vast majority of readers of MyBusiness, I am constantly grateful for the opportunity to do what I do. But the struggles of the small business owner are very real: The prospects of failure ever-looming. The reality of risk ever-present. The pains of guilt of something left undone ever-gnawing.

So why do we do it?

In some ways, we try to answer that question in each issue of MyBusiness magazine.

As IÆve noted before, the motivations are as diverse as the vast number of men and women who create and run American small businesses: personal passions, lifestyles, financial ambitions, power, fate and a myriad of other positive and negative motives drive the engine of entrepreneurship.

So, like you, here I am: Too much to do, too many questions unanswered, too many ideas not acted upon. Perhaps thatÆs the reason IÆm intrigued (make that, intimidated) by others who appear to do it all, to have it so together, to juggle so many balls so naturally. To the men and women like those we feature in the article, "The Juggling Act," who seem so adept at making things happen, owning one small business is not enough to fill their plates.

Like scaled downed versions of Steve Jobs (who runs both Pixar Studios and Apple Computer), these masters of multi-tasking have unlocked the secrets of what it takes to get more done and to get more out of what they already do.

Best of all, exploring these one-person conglomerates allows me the most unusual sensation: A sigh of relief at how little I have to do these days.

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This article originally appeared in the October/November 2003 issue of MyBusiness magazine.

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