You Are NOT Your Business!

You built the bars, you became a hostage, you fell in love with your lack of freedom. This condition is known as Stockholm Syndrome:

“Stockholm syndrome is a condition which causes hostages to develop a psychological alliance with their captors during captivity”

The majority of small business owners start a business because they found something they are extremely passionate about. I love sports, from this love of sport, my obsession with training grew and the dream of opening my own gym was born.

This dream became a reality in 2015. Over the past 4 years the gym has become my whole life. The gym is pretty “successful”, however up until the last 6 months, that success only came as a result of my wife and I working 18-20 hours per day, 7 days per week.

Many of the small business owners I meet, like me, have fallen in love with their business. The business takes up every second of their life and they start to forget that they chose this lifestyle.

Like most first-time business owners, we started the gym with nothing and so I had to do everything. There is nothing wrong with that. However, the problems arise when you start to believe your own excuses and lies.

When a group of business owners meet, usually the number one talking point focuses around how “tired” and “busy” they are. I know because that was me and I started to believe there was some nobility in being too busy to have a life.

Guess what, there isn’t.

THE ENTREPRENEUR STOCKHOLM SYNDROME = “I AM TOO BUSY”

1. NOBODY CARES

2. IT WILL EVENTUALLY CRUSH YOUR BUSINESS

Michael Gerber in the E-Myth reinforces the idea that the sole function of any business is to find and keep customers and the only reason you should start a business is to “build it to a point where you can sell it”.

If the business is not leading to the lifestyle you want or you are building to a point where you can get rewarded for your effort by selling the business, then get the hell out, NOW… Or fix the problem.

At OxWork our mission is to help business owners create a business that builds their dream life. This month we are implementing the book Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz and we will be holding each other accountable to designing our businesses to run like “clockwork”.

If you no longer want to be held hostage to your business, come join the team.