Owning a business can be a trying journey. If you’re in it for the long haul, you may find your passion or motivation — or maybe both — waning over time. With the stress of running and scaling the business, plus dedicating the time necessary to develop your skills as an employer and industry leader, you can too easily let your own happiness and fulfillment take a back seat to the success of the company.
As business leaders themselves, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council understand the stressors of entrepreneurship, but they also know what it takes to thrive despite them. Below, they share some of the secrets to staying happy and fulfilled as an entrepreneur and why doing so is important.
12 Secrets to Finding Fulfillment as an Entrepreneur
- Happily implement work into your life.
- Build a business around your passion.
- Check in with yourself regularly.
- Allow yourself to change your mind.
- Connect with your “why” regularly.
- Find balance.
- Delegate tasks you don't love.
- Accept that there will always be challenges.
- Set short- and long-term goals.
- Recognize it’s a marathon.
- Tie your work to something meaningful.
- Prioritize yourself.
1. Happily Implement Work Into Your Life
You have to genuinely enjoy implementing your work into your life. I define work-life balance as entwining your work into your daily activities so that it’s not compartmentalized separately. Avoiding “siloing” work prevents me from thinking of it as separate from my life and instead allows me to see all beneficial angles. — Ryan Rose, JoneKiri
2. Build a Business Around Your Passion
Build a business around something you are truly passionate about. A business idea might look attractive and potentially profitable, and sometimes even easy to implement. Nothing is easy if you intend to achieve fantastic results, though. Things will get tough. You’ll need that passion to keep going. — Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS
3. Check In With Yourself Regularly
Routinely check in with yourself and ask what you want out of your business venture. You can lose sight of your initial goals when raising capital or working with manufacturers. Track your successes, little and big. Remember to ground yourself by focusing on your strengths. — Duran Inci, Optimum7
4. Allow Yourself to Change Your Mind
Question everything. Be OK with changing your mind. Give yourself permission to stop doing things that don’t fulfill you, whether by shelving a product that you don’t love or by outsourcing activities that you don’t enjoy doing. Changing your mind and reinventing yourself (and your business) as much as you want is OK. — Ryann Dowdy, Uncensored Consulting, LLC
5. Connect With Your ‘Why’ Regularly
We become entrepreneurs because of a dream or idea we have. But the reality of being an entrepreneur is hard work and long hours. The secret to staying happy is to identify the “why” that initially led you down the path to open your own business, then take time to connect with that “why” regularly. — Jared Weitz, United Capital Source Inc.
6. Find Balance
Entrepreneurs can easily become bogged down by their work because we are notoriously passionate, driven and persistent. Although these traits often drive much of our success, they can also lead to our downfall. Too much work and no play becomes miserable and unfulfilling. For entrepreneurs to stay happy and fulfilled, they must have balance and make time for activities that benefit them holistically. — Ismael Wrixen, FE International
7. Delegate Tasks You Don’t Love
Delegate. Make a list of everything you love doing in your business and another list of the things you don’t like. Take the list of things you don’t like doing and outsource them or put someone else in charge of them. You’ll be left with a list of things you love doing in your business. These are the things you find joy in. You will feel more fulfilled and happy when you are able to do the things you love to do. — Mary Harcourt, CosmoGlo
8. Accept That There Will Always Be Challenges
When I started Metal Mafia, I was focused on getting the business to the point where every department would run smoothly. Each time we got close to perfection, something would go awry — someone would quit, a product would be late — frustrating me to no end. Only when I accepted that there would always be a challenge to face did I begin to feel fulfilled and happy as an entrepreneur. — Vanessa Nornberg, Metal Mafia
9. Set Short- and Long-Term Goals
In my experience, the secret to staying happy and fulfilled is to set both long- and short-term goals. If you simply say, “I want to build a successful product,” and then you do, you will feel fulfilled for a little while, but you’ll need to think about what happens next. Preparing quarterly and annual goals helps me stay focused on my five-year plan. — John Brackett, Smash Balloon LLC
10. Recognize It’s a Marathon
The secret to being and staying happy as an entrepreneur is recognizing the marathon and expecting frequent challenges. It’s also important to recognize that because business is a marathon, you need to compartmentalize your work in a way that allows you to stay grounded and enjoy your family, friends, hobbies and life in general. — Fehzan Ali, Adscend Media LLC
11. Tie Your Work to Something Meaningful
When you achieve success as an entrepreneur, the usual goals of making your business grow further or creating new products won’t be as exciting as before. Instead, you’ll start searching for ways to tie your work to something more meaningful, like helping other people and giving back. Look for ways to connect with people and help them early on, and you’ll always feel fulfilled and happy. — Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner
12. Prioritize Yourself
No secret formula exists for staying happy as an entrepreneur. You need to actively strive for these things every day to feel like you’re living a meaningful life. Prioritize yourself as a business owner because your time is precious. You don’t have a lot of it when you’re an entrepreneur, so intentionally setting aside time to enjoy the things you love is a must. — Jared Atchison, WPForms
