MBA2549 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Have Fun While Growing my Business?

Summary

Podcast Summary: The $100 MBA Show – Episode MBA2549 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Have Fun While Growing my Business?

Introduction

In Episode MBA2549 of The $100 MBA Show, host Omar Zenhom tackles a compelling question from listener Angela: "How do I have fun while growing my business?" Released on November 20, 2024, this Q&A Wednesday episode delves deep into the intersection of passion, perseverance, and fulfillment in the entrepreneurial journey. Drawing from over two decades of entrepreneurship and personal experiences, Omar provides actionable insights on finding joy and meaning amidst the challenges of building a business.

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1. Success Makes the Grind Worth It

Omar begins by addressing the core of Angela's question, challenging the conventional notion that business growth must always be fun. Instead, he posits that the process doesn't need to be fun—it needs to be rewarding. According to Omar, success inherently brings joy.

Omar Zenhom [00:37]: "It doesn't have to be fun. It needs to be rewarding. That's all it needs to be is rewarding."

He elaborates that the pursuit of success and overcoming challenges are what make the journey fulfilling. Omar references various high-achievers, including Olympic athletes like Michael Phelps, who have admitted to disliking the daily grind but remain motivated by the rewards of success.

Omar Zenhom [02:10]: "I remember seeing Michael Phelps in an interview... he loved winning and the satisfaction of knowing that he gave it his all."

The key takeaway here is that the anticipation of success and the impact it brings are what sustain entrepreneurs through tough times.

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2. Find Joy in Building Something That Matters

Transitioning from the concept of success, Omar emphasizes the importance of creating something meaningful. Building a business that provides value and solves real problems is a significant source of fulfillment.

Omar Zenhom [04:00]: "Finding joy in building something that matters is crucial. Most people don't do this. We are privileged as business owners to get to do this."

To illustrate, Omar shares a personal anecdote about preparing and delivering a keynote speech at the DCBKK conference. The extensive preparation, from rehearsing to engaging with the audience, was arduous. However, the positive feedback and the tangible impact his speech had on attendees underscored the rewarding nature of his efforts.

Omar Zenhom [05:30]: "When I gave that talk and heard how much it impacted them, I realized this is why I was doing it. It's about making a meaningful impact."

Action Step: Omar advises entrepreneurs to reframe their perspective on work, viewing each task as a step toward building something significant. This shift in mindset transforms mundane activities into purposeful actions.

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3. Enjoy What the Business Provides: Time and Financial Freedom

Beyond the intrinsic rewards of building something meaningful, Omar highlights the extrinsic benefits that a successful business can offer—primarily time and financial freedom. These freedoms allow entrepreneurs to enjoy life outside of their business endeavors.

Omar Zenhom [07:15]: "As your business starts to grow, you start realizing that your business can really provide you a lot of time, freedom, a lot of financial security."

He cites Richard Branson as a prime example of leveraging business success to pursue personal passions, such as traveling or engaging in philanthropy.

Omar Zenhom [09:00]: "Richard Branson pushes hard and builds incredible businesses, but he enjoys the success through travel, philanthropy, and personal passions."

This segment underscores that while the daily hustle may not always be enjoyable, the freedoms and opportunities that arise from business success can lead to profound personal satisfaction and joy.

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Conclusion

Omar Zenhom wraps up the episode by reiterating that business growth doesn't have to be fun every day, but it must be rewarding. By focusing on building something meaningful, appreciating the impact on others, and striving for the freedoms that success affords, entrepreneurs can find true fulfillment in their journey.

Omar Zenhom [09:45]: "Change your perspective a little bit about what fun means to you. It's about having meaning, purpose, and feeling that your work matters."

He encourages listeners to embrace the challenges and recognize that the real joy comes from the rewards and impact, not necessarily from the day-to-day activities themselves.

Key Takeaways:

1. Success as Motivation: Let the pursuit of success drive you through the tough times.
2. Meaningful Work: Focus on creating something that has a positive impact.
3. Extrinsic Rewards: Enjoy the time and financial freedom that your business growth provides.

Action Steps:

• Reframe Your Perspective: View each task as a step toward a meaningful goal.
• Focus on Impact: Concentrate on how your business benefits others.
• Leverage Freedoms: Use the rewards of success to enrich your personal life.

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Final Thoughts

Episode MBA2549 offers a nuanced perspective on finding joy in entrepreneurship. Omar Zenhom's insights remind us that while the entrepreneurial path is fraught with challenges, it's the rewarding nature of success and meaningful contribution that make the journey worthwhile. For more actionable business lessons and strategies, visit The $100 MBA Show.

Transcript

[Jim]

Got a 7am meeting on a Monday expensing breakfast because it's in policy wasting all afternoon submitting an expense report for that breakfast. If your company used Ramp, you could submit expenses with just a text.

[Omar Zenhom]

Yay.

[Angela]

Free your team from expense reports today. Switch your business to ramp.com foreign.

[Omar Zenhom]

Welcome back to the $100 MBA show. I'm your host Omar Zenholm and today's episode is a Q and A Wednesday episode where we answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners, or one of our viewers on YouTube or community members. If you have a question you want to ask, go ahead and send me your question [e-mail] Q and we'll answer it right here. Q and A Wednesday Today's question is from Angela and Angela asks, how do I have fun while growing my business? This is a great question, but my answer might surprise you. It doesn't have to be fun. It needs to be rewarding. That's all it needs to be is rewarding. The truth is, success will be fun. The pursuit of success and the challenge of overcoming difficulty will be fun, will be rewarding. Probably one of the most fulfilling things you'll ever do. And I'm going to give you plenty of examples of successful people in business and other fields of life and their perspective on should they be having fun or how much fun they're having to get to that successful level. In preparation of today's episode, I did a bit of research on many successful people that I admire. Olympic athletes, professional athletes, musicians, award winning actors, and of course, business people. People that have built incredible businesses. And many of them say they don't love the grind. Many of them admit that the training, the work to get there is brutal. But they push through because the re is worth it. Sitting on that stage and winning that Grammy, right? Or building a business that helps so many people, they say it's worth it. The same goes with building your business. It's not always going to feel fun, but you're going to stick with it because of the rewards that are involved. It's going to be worthwhile for you of all that pain and anguish because the success and the impact you make will make you feel proud. And that leads me to my first key takeaway for you in today's lesson and that is success is what makes the grind worth it. Many of the athletes that I've studied, the musicians, the business leaders, they don't always love the process. They don't love the work that it takes to become successful, but they love the Success that comes from dedication. I remember seeing Michael Phelps in an interview with one of the most decorated Olympic athletes in history. He said that he didn't love swimming every day, right? But he loved winning and the satisfaction of knowing that he gave it his all. The same principle applies to business. When I look back at the things that I am most proud of, that I'm most happy that I went through, it was challenging, it was tough, it was a grind. But that was most rewarding that I actually got through that. Right? It's okay to have fun and enjoy the process as much as you can. We're going to talk about that in a moment. How to find the joy. At the same time, you got to remember that the things you're going to be most proud of at the end of your career, at the end of your life, are the challenges you went through. One of my favorite biographies is Open by Andre Agassiz, his autobiography. And the book starts with him saying, I hate tennis. I hate waking up morning feeling so sore I have to take a hot shower just so I can be able to walk to breakfast in my kitchen, right? And he expresses his disdain for tennis, but he says, I keep doing it because I love being a champion. So what I want you to do as an action step is reframe how you see work. It's not about having fun every moment. It's about knowing that every task you do is one step towards something meaningful, something that you're going to be proud of. Second key takeaway is find joy in building something that matters. Okay. While the day to day grind might not always be fun and exciting, building something that makes an impact is exciting, is special. Most people don't do this. We are privileged as business owners to get to do this. Knowing that your business provides value to us others is deeply fulfilling. And it brings a sense of purpose, a sense of, I gotta get up in the morning and make this happen. I'm gonna give you an example from my own life, from my own experience. Recently I went to a conference called dcbkk. It's a very large conference of digital nomads and entrepreneurs. And I was a closing keynote there. And I was working on my speech that I was delivering. It was about 30 minutes long and I wanted to impact the audience as much as possible. And it was a lot of hard work for me to, you know, first of all, fly to Bangkok, you know, stay in the hotel, rehearse, work on my speech. I've been working on my speech for weeks and months beforehand, working on my slides It's a lot of work. It's not easy, you know, and I'm sitting there, you know, trying to learn from the audience leading up to my speech. I'm the closing keynote. So there's a few days of conference before I get on stage. And I want to learn from the audience and figure out, you know, who they are. I'm talking to them and they're in lunch, I'm networking, I'm exhausted by the end of the day. You know, I'm trying to make sure that I deliver the best speech possible and cater to the audience. And at the same time, I gotta make sure that I don't get sick and I get healthy, I stay healthy, I get on stage, I have energy, and then I don't flop and deliver a horrible speech or get nervous or whatever it might be. But I did it anyway and I wanted to really do a good job. I was so driven by the fact that I know that this talk can impact this audience and really influence them to move their business in the right direction. And I remember giving that talk on the stage and closing out the conference, and then they would have like a dinner and a party later on. And at that party, so many people came up to me and said how much that talk impacted them. And in that moment in that party, I realized this is why I was doing it. It's because I really wanted to make sure I was making an impact. This is me. I want to have some significance in my life. I want to feel like my work actually impacts others. And that's what drives me to do all that work, to deliver a 30 minute speech and fly away back home and get back to work on something else, like this podcast. So it's not always going to be fun. The actual work leading up to the speech is a lot of, you know, heartache and a lot of endurance. And I have to rehearse it over and over and deliver and figure out what's the best way for me to communicate to the audience and make sure that I'm making eye contact and I'm working on my speaking skills and my delivery skills and all that. The point here is, is that leading up to that 30 minutes, it's a lot of work, it's a lot of pain, but I know it's going to be rewarding. So therefore, I focus and I get it done. So the action step here is to focus on the impact your business has, whether it's solving a problem or making life easier for your customers. Let that be your source of fulfillment. Let that be the source of your fun?

[Angela]

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[Jim]

It looks like Jim from sales just got in from his client lunch and he's got receipts. His next meeting is in two minutes. The team is asking, can he get through his expenses in that time? He's going for it. Is that his phone? He's snapping a pic. He's texting around. Jim is fast, but this is unheard of. That's it. He's done it. It's unbelievable.

[Angela]

On ramp expenses are faster than ever. Just submit them with a text. Switch your business to ramp.com.

[Omar Zenhom]

Number three. Enjoy what the business provides. Time and financial freedom. Right? As your business starts to grow, as you start to scale, as you start to taste the fruits of your labor, you start realizing that, wow, my business can really provide me a lot of time, freedom, a lot of financial security. And the real fun comes from that freedom and not necessarily the day to day hustle that you are going through to achieve that freedom. One of my favorite examples of this is Richard Branson. He pushes hard and builds all these incredible businesses, but enjoys the success of that business through travel, through philanthropy, through pursuing personal passions like flying a hot air balloon across the world, right? That's not business. That's him having a bit of fun with what his business allows him to do. So think about what you want your business to give you a better lifestyle. Freedom to travel, time with family, financial freedom. Buy the toys and the luxuries you always wanted. Whatever it might be, the lack of stress of finances and being able to buy whatever you want without looking at price tags, whatever it might be for you, think about that to allow you to focus on, okay, I got to do this work to enjoy the things that the business will provide outside of the business to wrap up. Angela, Growing your business doesn't have to be fun every day. It doesn't have to be fun every step of the way. It just needs to be rewarding, right? And that's where you're going to find the joy Focus on building something meaningful. Enjoy the impact you're making. Look forward to the freedom your business will give you. That's what the real joy I have found in my personal opinion, my personal experience, that's where the real joy comes from. The joy comes from not the daily grind, but the rewards that you reap along the way, including overcoming those challenges that you see that you, you inevitably will go through in building something meaningful. Thanks for tuning into the Hunter lmba show, and I hope this helped in any way. Angela, who asked this question? Everybody else who's listening and watching, if you got a question you want to ask, don't Forget, just go to 100mba.net q and you can submit your question there. Change your perspective a little bit about what fun means to you. And as you get older, in my opinion, you find that it's great to have fun, but what's really greater is to have meaning, to have purpose, to feel a sense of significance, and that your work and your existence on this earth matters. And to me, that's the real driver in what I do every day in my business. Thanks so much. I'll check you next time.

[Jim]

And we're back, folks. It looks like Jim from sales just got in from his client lunch and he's got receipts. His next meeting is in two minutes. The team is asking, can he get through his expenses in that time? He's going for it. Is that his phone? He's snapping a pic. He's texting Ramp Jim is fast, but this is unheard of. That's it. He's done it. It's unbelievable.

[Angela]

On ramp, expenses are faster than ever. Just submit them with a text. Switch your business to ramp.com.