GIVE ME 3 MINUTES RIGHT NOW AND I’LL SHOW YOU WHY YOU ARE NOT BEEN PRODUCTIVE.

I enjoy working hard, I thrive on excellence. I am a high achiever.

I am not a machine. I deserve a work/ life balance that goes beyond a few Sundays stay-cation every now and again.

My body is tired, my brain drains. I lose ideas. I feel like I am stuck in a rot.

Everything is amplified! I react in aggression over otherwise comical situations.

If you are experiencing any of the signs listed above, then you an entrepreneurial time bomb waiting to explode into nothingness.

It is very likely to hear entrepreneur’s with a start up share on how they work so hard relentlessly and how impossible it seems to take a holiday. We fear or maybe I for the most part thought that ‘things will fall apart’ once I am away.

Quick fact: I have a team that is highly efficient and my Mama is the CEO of my start-up.

Just because I have names for everything, I have decided to call this feeling ‘entrepreneurial gripes’ they never go away, they never get better.
You just get used to it or better still learn how to manage it.

As a young business owner your venture can be likened to a young mother and her newborn. We are over-protective, eager to please, scared of making mistakes and unsure of which way to go. We get so focused on the process of getting the baby ready and forget why we had the baby anyway.

Slowing down on work every now and again is needed. WHY? It helps one to reflect on the whys and what’s. Why are you doing it anyway? What do you hope to achieve in 10 years. It’s a chance to evaluate your achievements, measure how far you have come and it gives you strength to push on to what next! The forgotten key to entrepreneurial success is disconnecting from work!

Almost everything will work again, when unplugged.

Below are 3 ways that supported my journey towards taking my first official break in 5 years. If I could do it again, I would not have waited for so long. You can do better! Let’s go:

There is no perfect time to take a vacation, rather you make time to make it happen.

Something is always bound to happening to distort your well planned daily activity especially for those of us that live in developing countries. Cancelling time out to rest will not make the problem go away. Most times it compounds it. An innovator thrives on brain power to think up new ideas and solutions that work.

You are not the answer.

The project you are working on, the product you designed or the solution you have provided is not about you! You are just a tool positioned to execute these plans, you can only do this effectively by creating a system that works without you. Your business plan must be designed with that in mind, fool proof against self. This how food and beverage companies such as twinings and kellogs have grown over time into legacies of excellence.

Treat your team with all fairness, let peace reign.

SME owners struggle to sell their vision on to the people that support their growth the most, the team. Your employees are your greatest asset, treat them fairly at all times. Institutionalise leave time, give them their due. Set the motion for what they are to expect from the company in terms of TLC. Hell will not break loose when you take time out for a much needed break, it will be a cycle in a culture.