Last week, for some reason, I was asked almost ten times what I do for a living.  I responded differently every time the question came up, so I figured I’d post a blog about what it’s like to live my life and finally come up with a definitive answer.

First of all, no matter how much I try to explain my work situation, most people will never truly grasp what I do. The word “entrepreneur” doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all definition because we all describe it differently. However, there are some common qualities that most of us share.

Striving to be a world-class entrepreneur is such an intense daily ride that we [entrepreneurs] don’t even know how driven we can be. We’re so passionate about being the best that our “hours” feel like the average person’s “minutes.”

Because of our fast-paced lives, we are often labeled as “workaholics.”  The reason I, and basically every million-dollar businessperson I know gets labeled this way is because our lives and work mesh as one continuous day.

We just can’t “show up” and collect a check. We eat because we create… We are forced to deliver enormous value or our lifestyles will diminish. Because our survival is directly linked to the quality of our results, consistent action is required on our part.

We don’t live by an alarm clock, a boss, or an authority.We are the authority. We’ve learned to become our own cheerleaders by default. We require no praise or kick in the butt. We’re self-sufficient, no-excuse-making warriors. We don’t make emotionally-based decisions. We live and die by our creativity, implementation, testing, and relationships.

If we choose to take it easy or relax, we’ll eventually lose. This causes us to be sober, alert, and ready to take on challenges and risks the average person will never understand. This is the lifestyle of a world-class entrepreneur and up-and-coming entrepreneurs. It’s the reality we live in, and it’s a great way to live.

The biggest struggle we face is balance.

Balance is a continuous battle that we fight on a daily basis. The good news is that you can eventually master the balancing act. We master balance by saying “No” more often. We master balance by understanding that there will always be money to be made, but children grow up quickly and eventually move out of the house.

We master balance by planning our days in advance and sticking to the plan, only deviating from it if we must.

The world-class entrepreneur eventually becomes financially successful. This isn’t hard for us to accept; we worked out butts off to get to this point and we take nothing for granted. The hardest part is realizing that other people, even our families, often perceive us differently once we’ve “made it.”

We understand that we have not changed; it’s only our financial positions that are different. Sadly, those around us who don’t experience the same freedom we do can sometimes pass judgment on us based on our balance sheets instead of our hearts.

Saturday and Wednesday have the same meaning to us. We don’t identify freedom and happiness by weekdays and weekends.

Time is important to us. We live by the deadline. We don’t “hope” things work out; we make things work out. The real entrepreneur brings value to the local community. We create jobs and bring an abundance mindset to a scarcity-driven public.

We have fun and laugh a lot. We experience more emotion within a week-long product launch than some people experience in a one-year period of time.

We expect the best out of other people around us. Mediocrity bothers us.

We’re constantly looking for people who are smarter than we are to talk to and learn from. We stay hungry for quality information that we can implement the moment we wake up in the morning and not just talk about what we’d like to do with our buddies while driving down the road.

We expect more out of ourselves than anyone around us could ever expect from us. We take being successful seriously, not just financially-speaking but in all facets of life.

We understand that listening is a far greater asset than speaking. We aren’t afraid to be held accountable… As a matter of fact, we thrive on it. It gives us a chance to show people who we are and what we’re made of.

We clearly understand that the only thing that can create results is action, and action is the greatest asset of all.

From now on when someone asks me what I do for a living, I think I’ll just simply say, “I’m an entrepreneur.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Life Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.