What Matters More than Money? Stamina

What Matters More than Money? Stamina
By Margaret Heffernan | April 1, 2010



What is it that entrepreneurs most need? When I ask that question at business schools, the answer is always “money.” But when I ask it of entrepreneurs themselves, the answer is something else — and it’s always the same: “stamina.”

I’ve interviewed successful business owners around the world, and that’s always the answer I get. When you think about it, the reason is obvious. If you quit, the game’s over and you know the outcome. But if you can keep going, you still have a chance. The question is, How do you keep yourself going? The answer may surprise you.

Liz Elting, who runs Transperfect, one of the world’s largest translation companies, vividly remembers an all-nighter she and her co-founder Phil Shawe pulled for a prestigious new client: “I remember one Christmas Eve that Phil and I were doing a job for Goldman Sachs, and we were in there working through the night. When it was done, we were late (and exhausted!) for our own personal family celebrations… In the first few years, there was a lot we gave up.”

James Dyson of vacuum cleaner fame spent twenty nerve-wracking and nearly bankrupting years bringing his revolutionary design to market. Chronicling the lawsuits and betrayals he went through, Dyson’s autobiography Against the Odds (one of the few great business autobiographies) is exhausting to read. It chronicles years of dishonest dealing, corrupt business practices and sheer bad luck as Dyson bulldozes his way through business deals that always seem to explode at the last minute.

And I’ll never forget Karla Diehl’s laughter when her firm Edison Automation made it into the Inc. 500. What was the big joke? “Everyone’s congratulating me as though we just arrived,” she said. “But we’ve been trying to figure this business out for nearly twenty years!”

What all business founders learn is that success rarely occurs overnight, and the triumph, when it arrives, does so when you’re too tired and battle-weary to celebrate. But what they’ve all learned along the way is that keeping going is the ultimate test. So where does that stamina come from? A colleague once asked me how I’d outlasted the 40 other CEOs in my corporate group, who’d all quit somewhere along the way. I realized that since I had two small children at the time, I had to go home at 6 p.m. Getting out of the office had kept me in the game.

It’s counter-intuitive, but stamina comes from having the courage and discipline to step away from work. Here are three ways to start:

1.Go home before everyone else does. It gives your employees permission to go home, too. Unless you’re in crunch mode, they’re much smarter when they’re rested than when they’re fried.

2.Give everyone a break after hitting big milestones. Otherwise the milestones become meaningless.

3.Be honest about family commitments. Most people don’t work for money; they work for their families. They’ll be more committed if you reduce the conflict they feel between work and family.

All success requires stamina. So why do we persist in thinking long hours are good for us? If you’re running a marathon, why try to maintain a sprinter’s pace?

MY THOUGHTS

i promise. i promise to go home before my staff. so they'll go home, too. maybe there is crunch time because we get too tired.

Work Stress Can Kill You - Don't Let It

Work Stress Can Kill You - Don't Let It
By Steve Tobak | March 2, 2010

I just read a report that Intel executive VP Sean Maloney suffered a stroke. Intel says the 53 year-old executive’s prognosis for full recovery is excellent and he’s expected to be back at work after a few month’s medical leave to recuperate. I’ve never met Maloney, but he’s been a rising star at Intel for nearly two decades and some consider him the leading candidate to take the reigns from current CEO Paul Otellini.

According to Real World Technologies analyst David Kanter in a Reuters article, “It was pretty clear that he [Maloney] and Dadi [Perlmutter] would be running the company together when Otellini steps down. The bigger question is, long-term, is this something that Sean says, ‘Maybe I need to slow down? Or maybe I’m not the right person to step up and be CEO.’”

That got me thinking about how we work ourselves to death on a stress treadmill, often of our own making, expecting some beautiful oasis at the end. But that’s not the way it works. Here’s how it really works:

A couple of years ago I had dinner with a long-time friend and associate who was in town from Dallas. After dinner, he mentioned he had a headache. Neither of us thought much of it. I went home and he went to his hotel. That night he had an aneurism. Luckily he’s fine now, even after a scary two week stay in the intensive care unit.A few years before that, my dad died after a long bout with heart disease and strokes. He used to worry about everything. Now he has nothing to worry about.

In 1997, a good friend in his late 30s had a stroke. That was a real shock. Who gets a stroke in his 30s? When I asked him why he thought it happened, he came clean and told me that he spent a good percentage of his brain cycles worrying about stuff. Who knew?

I get crazy migraine headaches when I’m stressed out. When the attacks are really bad, they can last for days. I know folks who get them much worse than that. It’s nuts.

I can’t speak for Sean, but everybody else in this story, myself included, is or was a stress monster.

Look, I know you folks like to hear about positive things that can help your careers; I don’t blame you. But let’s be honest, does any of that really matter if you stress and worry and push yourself so hard that you can’t enjoy it when you “make it,” either because you’re debilitated or not around. Morbid, I know, but it is reality, folks.

Want to know why I gave up a lucrative executive career at only 46? I think you can figure it out. But you know what? I rarely get those headaches anymore, maybe twice a year. I used to get them all the time.

Here’s the question: are you a stress monster? Sure, we all learn our own techniques to manage as best we can, but we also intuitively know when we’ve gotten to a point where things are starting to get out of control. When that happens, do yourself a favor: look in the mirror and ask yourself if it’s worth it. More importantly, if you think you’re stuck, ask yourself if you’re on a treadmill of your own making. More often than not, you are. And that means only you can stop it.

One more thing. There’s no beautiful oasis at the end. The journey is the oasis, every minute of every day. Enjoy it while you can.

MY THOUGHTS

the nagging question still is why? why kill ourselves working? why stress ourselves out? when you have the repsonisbilities, it's so hard to just call it quits and stop. afterall, there are things that need to be done. on the other hand, if you get sick Or die), life foes on and some other person will just take over the responsibilities. it's true, we do make the decision to get on that treadmill we even create the treadmill. but the treadmill has speed dials. and time dials. and you can't be running 24/7. just not possible. and not worth it.