Business should serve your life, not consume it.

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People think starting a business is about winning. About out-earning everyone. A conquest. We're told ad nauseam that the world's best businesspeople are scaling bigger, hiring more, and earning the most.

What if none of that is true?

Business should support your life, not consume it. It should be a vehicle that serves the life you want to build rather than an endless series of obligations that distract you from living.

Since 2019, I've kept my business deliberately small. One person, to be exact.

Me.

I work from home, generally in my office. I'll spend 3-4 hours on the most important stuff that needs to get done. When I need some help, I ask my wife. Sometimes, we'll sit together and work at our dining room table. We'll eat lunch together. Go for a walk. At 5:30p we might have a glass of wine and talk.

People write to me all of the time and say things like:

"You could 5x your business if you'd just do XYZ!"

"No thanks," I tell them.

I'm not interested in whatever XYZ is.

The bigger you get, the more employees you have to hire, the more paperwork you need, and the more problems you encounter. Don't believe me? I managed teams of 150+ people for over a decade prior to the work I do now. I've seen it firsthand.

When you grow a business, work becomes more about managing problems than doing what you love.

I've watched people grow companies until they collapse under their own complexity. They have to lay people off. Retool. Become simpler.

What if you never stopped being simple in the first place?

I've noticed that many people lose control of their business because they're trying to make it something that other people are impressed by.

That's backward. So, maybe you shouldn't.

Instead, keep it small. Keep margins high. Learn to do more of what's working and less of what isn't. Be the person who makes good money and isn't trapped by the allure of continual scale.

Define what a wonderful life means for you. Maybe it's having the freedom to travel. To take every Tuesday off to go to lunch with your spouse. Or bring your kids to school. Or maybe it just means you're the boss.

Once you have your priorities, your business should support them. Not get in their way.

When my wife and I decided we wanted to live abroad in Paris, we packed up our stuff and left. My business is portable. No employees to check in with. No boss to ask. When I wanted to take a week off and go to Mexico City with my friends, I just did it. That's the beauty of life first, business second.

Your business isn't your life's purpose. It's just a tool. You're the architect, so you can shape it however you'd like.

Ask yourself: "Is my business supporting my priorities or getting in the way?"

If it's destroying more than it's serving, redesign it.

You get one life.

Your business should improve it.

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