Beyond The Grind: 3 Questions Every Entrepreneur Must Answer

Three questions that I think you need to ask. And I'm not going to say you must ask it. You should ask, because I think these 3 questions will allow you to reflect on why the hell you're doing what you're doing. I get it, I've been there. I lived there. I know what it's like to run a business.

First question, why are you an entrepreneur? And think deep about that. You had the guts and I applaud you for having the guts and the toughness to take a risk and either leave a job or never even get a job. You did something. It's like, I'm going to be independent, but why?

Is it for the money? Is it for the passion? Is it for independence? Why do you want to be an entrepreneur? Why are you an entrepreneur? Because you love what you do? Are you following this passion? Which is great. I think following the passion is amazing. The challenge with just following the passion though, if you don't learn the fundamental skills of running a company, your passion is only going to get you to a certain point, but reflect on that.

Everybody has a different path. Everybody has a different reason. You may be a nerd like I was. I was a nerd getting out of college and I'm like, "I got a couple degrees in engineering. I think I'm gonna go engineer some stuff." I just wanted to prove to myself that, I could make a product and I can get it manufactured and I can take it to the market and the market would say, "Hey, that's pretty good s**t, Mike." And then they buy it, that could be your passion, but it can also be all-consuming and I'm not going to sit here and say, it's easy. It's not easy! It is brutally difficult to balance it all. I think balance is an insane thing, but if you're happy and you have great relationships and you've got great health, you've got that foundation. When those three pieces aren't working, all the rest of the stuff is tough.

So the second question is, what does your dream life look like? Now, when people say, what do you do? Okay, I help entrepreneurs design and execute their dream business as it aligns with the values and goals of their dream life. If you build a business and that business does not align with where you want to be personally, guess what? You can lose. If your business becomes all-consuming, and you really, in your heart of hearts, want to spend time with your parents, your siblings, your children, your friends, your spouse, or your significant other, whatever it may be, if your business swallows you, and you miss out on this other stuff, it's not a win.

Too many people think it is the win. Yes, we want to balance this out. Yes, we want to win in business. I flat-out understand the competitive nature. “I want to go for it.” “I want to get it.” I want to get there but "Does your business align with the values and goals of your dream life?" Now, think about that. Design it! Because it's virtually impossible in life to accomplish something.

Now people do well, I got super successful or I won the lottery, or my parents died and left me a sh*t ton of money. Whatever it may be, what does your dream life look like? Because if your business doesn't align with that you're going to find conflicts.

This brings us to the third question, What does your dream business look like? What do you want to be doing? How much money do you want to be making? What kind of employees do you want? What kind of impact do you want to make in the world? It could be a charitable foundation. Whatever it is, what do you want it to look like?

When you design the dream business, make sure that you're taking both pieces into account. Oftentimes we go off and develop a business plan or a strategic plan every single year and we develop those business goals. What about the personal goals? What about the life goals? What about the health goals? What about the relationship goals? There's a lot of other stuff that surrounds this beautiful thing called the entrepreneurial journey.

Listen! I'm your biggest fan. Just the fact that you went out there and said, you know what, I'm going to roll the dice. I'm betting on me. I'm going to go after this and I love it. I don't care if you're just starting out or you're running a billion-dollar corporation. I love it! Anyone who has the guts to go out and say, “You know what, I'm starting my own business and I'm going to go make a difference. I'm going to be in control of my destiny.” That's flat-out gold.

Now, here is an undeniable truth about this journey we're on. We don't get to come back. There's an end date for all of us. This is your life! Make it the best life that you can possibly make it. And I'm promising you, I'm telling you, I learned the hard way. It's not all about business. I made some mistakes, we all do, but there is an undeniable truth that we don't get to do this twice. We don't get to come back.

We know here's the movie, they put all the actors and actresses out and they say, take one. And then, they screw that up and they go take two. There's no take two for us. We don't get ‘take two’, we only get ‘take one’. So if you're going through this journey and you're miserable as sh*t, you gotta change.