The Danger of Being Emotionally Attached To Your Business

Are you emotionally attached to your business? Recently I have been seeing a common thread with many business owners. In a Recent article titled “Pursue Passion or Profit?” by Lynn Terry from Clicknewz.com, she brought up some great points. In Lynn’s post she tackles of the topic of does your passion pay your bills? Lynn brings up many good points and no matter what, if passions aren’t paying your bills, you may need to start doing something else until you start making money.

Many of us have heard the saying “pursue what you love and profits will follow”. Well, I would have to say that’s not always true. In our recent Virtual Entrepreneurship Workshop, that topic what brought up with one of the speakers. He said “your goal should be to make enough money that you can then pursue and enjoy your passions.”

I know many will disagree, but you have to admit that paying bills is a very important thing and if your passion isn’t doing it, you are not a failure, you just need to move on to something else that makes money.

It’s Not Just A Few…

I have just recently gotten hooked on the new TV show “Shark Tank”. I have found it fascinating that the majority of entrepreneurs that come on the show are extremely emotionally attached. To the point where they refuse to let anyone partner with them in order to make money.

There is one guy on the show that always says, “you can’t get emotional about money, because money doesn’t get emotion over you”… This is very true.

When we set out to make money with our passion we can become very emotionally attached. To the point where we waste every penny we have to try to get it to work. This is sad to see and I’m sure many of us have been there or are still there!

We need to remember the main reason we set out on our entrepreneurial journey. For most it was to have more freedom and more money. But those who get emotionally attached can become a slave to their business and lose the freedom they sought after. This is why I think it’s important to really sit down and figure out what’s really important and what our goals are. If our goal is to be able to spend more time with our family, it’s probably better not to start a business that is going to require ALL of our attention ALL of the time.

I really appreciate the concept that Rich Schefren teaches called The Founder. He says that there are entrepreneurs and there are founders…

Most entrepreneurs are too tied up in their business and if they were to take any time off, they would start to lose money. But a Founder is someone who is not emotionally attached to their business or company to where they could take a vacation and their business would continue to grow. There is a strategy to all of this and it can take time to figure all of it out, but it’s a different way than most of taught how to build a business.

I really encourage all of you to take a close look at what you are currently doing, especially if you are not bringing in any income. Maybe it’s time to change your strategies and focus so you can start paying your bills.

Keep moving forward.

Tagged as: Business, Entrepreneur, Lynn Terry, passion vs. profit, Small business