The slightly spiritual challenge of being in business

Seriously, well done for getting past the headline. 

I think that in the early days of my real estate career had I seen that headline I would have kept scrolling or hit ‘delete’. 

But my outlook has changed, and certainly when I speak with other business owners (not necessarily just real estate business owners), whether they frame it this way or not, there is one essential thing that you MUST DO if you want to grow a business.

Because your time is limited, and ideally you want balance in your life so you can sleep, exercise, have a relationship, and pursue other interests, you have to let go of some activity that you do.

Letting go is that somewhat, spiritual challenge.

I figured early on that the biggest bottleneck in this business is me… If everything has to come through me then everything will be slow. I didn’t dream this up – every business owner comes up against this at some point – you will find it in podcasts and books. But I did have to learn this the hard way, because until you have to hand over the controls, you don’t know what it is like. 

The process of eliminating my involvement in processes and decision making is essential. Getting things ‘off my desk’ is a major part of what the wonderful team around me do. While that frees me up, it also feels like I am losing control of something that I have dreamed of and giving it away to someone else to make happen. 

What if they get it wrong? What if it costs too much? What if it goes to the bottom of their pile and the idea languishes and dies?

There you go – that is why it is called letting go. 

And that is why it feels like a slightly spiritual process to me.  

My diary is far from a free clean slate every morning. My phone rings regularly. My inbox is often full.  
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Seems that there is a bit more work to be done – inner work as well as work work – that slightly spiritual, ‘letting go’ kind of work.