Skip to main content

Edition 318 – What’s The Point

It’s early Saturday morning. I’m waking from my slumber and Trish has brought a cup of tea back to bed after putting Prince the King Charles Cavalier out for his morning yard sniff.

“Shane Warne has died” she calls out, opening up the news of the day.

“That can’t be right” I exclaimed as my eyes popped wide open at, surely, was fake news.

Sadly, as we know, it was true. An icon of Australian sport and someone who, in my opinion, had that aura and personality about him that could have taken him to the highest office in the land,  just like it did Bob Hawke (and had he chosen that path) had passed away after suffering a heart attack in Thailand.

In Growth Edition 225 – Men’s Health – Wednesday 4th June, 2020 – https://deanrobinson.com.au/edition-225-mens-health/   I remarked on the news of two men who had chosen to take their own lives, battling as they were with mental health issues. Sadly, one succeeded, if that is the correct word to use for such a tragic event. The other survived and, to this day, is living a normal, happy, healthy life.

What has struck me in recent months are the stories of otherwise ordinary people and how their health or their circumstances are significantly impacting their lives.

  1. One of our neighbours, at the age of just 55, suffered a stroke and took extensive time off work to recuperate. He’s worked for a large corporate for at least two decades and, by all accounts, his job was incredibly demanding. Lots of travel – phone calls at home – emails on his device.
  2. A fantastic client, under 30, admitting to me that he’s working almost 100 hours per week as he combines a demanding role in a large organisation with his successful start up (which is consuming less than 20% of those hours).
  3. A highly respected and well credentialled colleague who is so busy in her work that she’s having to give up attending social events in order to keep on top of her workload.

After 30 plus years of working with the owners and managers of small and family businesses, it still puzzles me how much “success” appears to be determined by dollars and not by lifestyle. At the end of the day, what’s that dollar worth if your health is shot?

If you’re busting your chops, every day,  just to get work done, keep your clients happy and ensure the wheels of your business are turning, then I’m sorry, there’s either a problem with:

  1. You; or,
  2. Your business.

No one but you can change either of those. And yet, in spite of the stories we hear of people whose health is impacted, or their life taken, by stress, overwork and anxiety, most of you will do nothing to change any of it….until there is no turning back.
 

After years of observing this of others, and, sadly, doing it myself, part of my reason for making a significant career and business decision in 2016 at the age of 48 was all about designing my business to support my life – not the other way around. It’s difficult to do and there are lots of challenges along the way. However, it can be done – if you’re prepared to change AND willing to seek and accept support and guidance.


This Weeks Tip

“Isn’t the whole idea of being in business about creating the sort of life you want to live
– then living it?.”