When are we successful?

I am intrigued by success stories, rags to riches, sickness to health, born in a trailer park, becomes a multi-millionaire.... and all that jazz.

And there is no better way of evaluating self success than running one's own business.  This activity has made me question many things.  What is the goal, what is the aim?  When am I successful?  How is the business preceived by others?  Do people see me as an expert in my field?  Does any of this matter?  And so it goes on.

I have recently ditched it all for a much more interesting and fun perspective.  How little time can I spend on the business and still maintain a handle on how well it is run and keep the standard of the product up to scratch.


I was taught from a young age that working hard is one of the finest attributes, first at the office, last to leave.  Sacrifice your family life and you will be rewarded.  So I swallowed and took it for 20 years as I accepted my 15 days leave per annum, worked as hard as I could every day, often working late into the night, with not much of a mission except to show the people around me that I was a hard worker.


What a bunch of bollox!

It is amazing how the words in a book can change one's perception, and two books have done that for me this year, namely the E-Myth by Michael Gerber and The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris.

I have been duped.  From now on if it doesn't bring me pleasure or make me money, I'm either not doing it, or I'll out source it!

Outsourcing is the most fabulously obvious way for us to have more time to do the things we want to do.  Let me set the record straight right here. I'm not encouraging anyone to become a lazy arsed slacker, just the opposite in fact.  All I'm suggesting is "Why do the things you don't enjoy when you can pay someone to do them who does enjoy it"?

Take spreadsheets for example.  Not my thing, but I have a crack squad of spreadsheet developers on board with me.  We all meet once a week, I give the brief and the team makes it happen.  I get to use that time to write my blog and create delicious recipes.  My team gets to eat beautiful food when they are here, we test new recipes on their taste buds. Win win.  In only a few hours I have the sexiest buying, packing and recipe sheets, all my quantities and pricing are sorted and worked out.  Outsourcing.  My new favourite word.


So now I measure my success in how much time I have to dedicate to other interesting things in my life, not on how many hours I'm burning the midnight oil!  And I am so done telling everyone how hard I work and how tough it is.  No.  People, I only work a few hours a week, I check my mail once a day and don't expect a call back within the hour.