Entrepreneurs and Vacation
What I've learned in 15 years learning how to (finally) take a vacation!
What I learned about vacation after 15 years running a business.
Taking a vacation is different for everyone. We all have our own pressures. Taking vacation as an entrepreneur is something I'm still learning to do - 15 years in - from experience and from many mentors.
Here are six things I learned about vacation. Hope they help you skip a few speed bumps along the way:
Always take one. No exceptions. Especially in the early years when you can least afford it (in all senses of the phrase). When you start a business it's like "flying a plane with both engines on fire and a broken steering wheel" (Thank you, Edwin Miller, for the analogy). You're in "the jungle" and you're doing everything. And I mean everything. We used to work 5:30am to 5pm selling then stay up doing all the administrative work. Saturdays? That was for creating content - "Content Saturdays" we called them. Your most limited resource is time. Vacation is impossible.
And yet, it is the single most important time in your life you take one. At least a week.
In the winter of 2008 we were broke- as we've covered here. We went to Maui for Christmas. I was so stressed out I wasn't sleeping - also covered here. When I got there, it got worse…for a few days. Then, I started to feel better. The distance was the healthiest thing I could do - even though I was still doing work every day, it wasn't 14 hours.
Over the years I've started to understand why, even then, it worked. Part of it was #2….
Always leave town and go far enough away you can't go back quickly. Our subconscious is powerful. The amount of information it manages, and protects us from, is extraordinary. (You weren't thinking about how the ground felt against your feet - until now. Yep, it's that powerful).
When we take time off at home or near work, our subconcious still knows all of the things we need to get done. That project around the house. That small to-do list item.
If we leave, we can't do those things. And we can relax. It may not feel like it in the moment, but we actually do.
I'll never forget a trip we took with family to Monterey in the summer near the beginning. I was so stressed out I was having anxiety attacks driving to dinner the first night. I felt terrible and hated being there. I remember that dinner though. And now, it's a fond memory while I couldn't tell you what the top ten things I was worried about at work were back then.
The guilt never goes away, it just changes. In the early years, we look forward to the day we have a cadre of capable team mates we can leave in charge of the store so we can finally take advantage of "being our own boss" (spoiler: nobody is their own boss. Everyone reports to someone- be it a board, a bank, their team, or all of the above).
In those days, I felt so guilty leaving an understaffed overworked team. That guilt would permeate its way into vacation.
My father-in-law is a business owner. One day, just months into TicketManager, we played golf where he said he always felt guilty taking holiday or buying himself a new toy (a golf club, a surfboard or the like). I thought he was crazy. With what we were going through at the time, I confidently spouted "I'll never feel guilty if this works after what we're going through." Silly youth.
Now? Same guilt, different face. I love what I do and working with the team and I feel guilty when I'm gone. It's always there. And you'll learn how to live with it (and be happy).
Don't stress the stress
Entrepreneurs are oftentimes hyper-driven. The whole world is a nail - even vacation. When we get on holiday, we need to nail that too. We don't have much time and we can't spend any of it being stressed, sad, sick, etc.
A psychologist (apologies, I can't remember who wrote it) said "what, only locals are allowed to be stressed or sad?"
My goodness they are so right. If you get stressed on holiday, that's normal. "Some people have a hard time just stopping and watching an ant hill. Little do they know just how valuable it is" - Dr. Dave Carbonell
No matter what you do, you'll think about work. That's okay. Especially when it's voluntary. Some of the best ideas we've ever had came on holiday while we were finally away from home and "flowing."
Re-entry is dangerous! When we get back from holiday, all that guilt makes us push too hard. I'm doing it right now, as I'm writing this. Take it easy upon returning. Overdoing it is a terrific way to wipe out gains from a vacation and wear oneself down. Set parameters and know you'll catch up on that to-do list - or at least reach homeostasis once again.