Why entrepreneurs need a hobby
"If you don't find some other outlet for your creative energy, you will just keep tinkering with your business." - Alex McClafferty
It's amazing how one simple statement can create a ripple effect that can change the course of your life. This quote above is one that my business advisor shared with me about a year ago. And the impacts of that statement has led to massive changes and an increased fulfillment in my life.
In this article, I am going to share why it's so important for entrepreneurs to have a hobby, as well as share the story of my own "exploration" to discover a whole new side of myself.
There's more to life than work, but many entrepreneurs forget that
"And all the time I've been on this earth, I have only one regret: I should have worked more." - Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy in the TV series 30 Rock.
The quote above from the TV show, 30 Rock, always stuck with me- partially due to the hilarious irony, as well as the sad reality for many entrepreneurs.
We know the phrase, "No one ever died saying 'I wish I had worked more'," yet for many entrepreneurs, we just work, work, work...
Since there is no time card to punch in or out, many entrepreneurs who got into the business with the desire of freedom end up working countless hours just because they can.
They get addicted to work.
They use the excuse, "I love my work" to justify more work.
But deep down inside, they know there is something more...
Your business is not your purpose
The reality is that for most entrepreneurs, their business is not "self-actualizing." By that, I mean that their business is not their core purpose in life, yet many treat it like this because they don't know what else is.
Unless your business is about saving the world, I would venture that you would agree with the statement above.
Lead generation, consulting, marketing, IT, design... while they may all be fun professions, they are not going to change the world.
Yet, for many entrepreneurs, we treat them like the most important thing in the world.
We make them core and center to our life.
We design our life around our business, instead of the other way around.
When your business is all you have, you tinker...
If you are doing a good job as a business owner, then you should actually have less to do as your business grows. You should be delegating more, giving more responsibility, and ultimately working in the business less.
While this sounds like a great idea in theory, for many entrepreneurs, they struggle when this turns into reality. They find they have nothing to do... so they start messing with stuff.
They start launching new projects, new product lines, or shifting focus...
They are breaking what is working... not because it needs to be, but because they are bored.
Their business has been their outlet for all their creative energy for years, and now that the business needs them less... well they struggle to accept it.
Regardless of whether they realize it or not, they start to tinker.
They have this creative energy and they use it...
How tinkering played out in my life
For me, as I reached this stage with Lead Cookie, I funneled my energy into launching a second company... at times I still question if this was a good idea. It wrecked hell on my personal life over the past year as I struggled to balance both and get Content Allies to a good and stable spot.
In retrospect, I could have enjoyed the freedom from Lead Cookie, doubled down on it, and enjoyed my hobbies more... but instead I drowned myself in self-inflicted work...
I tinkered... and as a result, created more work for myself.
Discovering my hobby
In early 2019, I began to realize that Content Allies was born largely out of a creative energy that I had with no outlet... I was bored now that my business needed me less, and so I was tinkering.
It was around this time that my advisor said those simple words to me.
"If you don't find some other outlet for your creative energy, you will just keep tinkering with your business." - Alex McClafferty
I realized that this was the case and that I needed something to funnel my energy toward besides just work.
My failure at a hobby
At first, I started by trying to write a book. While I have written business books for the purpose of promoting my companies, I had never really written one out of passion.
I dove in and started writing a book. I even wrote nearly 25,000 words of a book that I ended up scrapping because it was just crap, in my opinion. It was some book bridging business and self-help in some idiotic way that was just regurgitating everything I had learned from others.
So after 2 months and 25,000 words... I scrapped the book project and went back to the drawing board on hobbies.
Picking up piano
After realizing I had no interest in writing books as a passion project, I decided to start learning piano. I picked up a cheap $20 keyboard off Facebook marketplace, grabbed an app called Yousician, and then began studying music theory.
Within just a few weeks, I was playing some basic songs on piano and having a ton of fun.
For 2-3 months, I went down this path of just practicing piano, not quite sure where it would take me. Then, I decided to rekindle my youth and start working at music production.
Learning Electronic Music production
For those that don't know my path, I have a degree in Audio Engineering, yet, I never could play an instrument until the piano. So the natural evolution from the piano was to begin turning those into actual songs in the computer.
I picked up a copy of Ableton Live, which is one of the premier Electronic Music production tools on the market today and began fiddling around.
Each day, I played some piano, and I learned some Ableton.
Then, I started working on some basic songs. The first few were horrible!
But over time, I started to make some stuff that didn't totally suck.
So I kept making music, week after week.
And by the end of the year, I had released an album on Spotify under the name The Rabbit.
Learning 3D Art
Once I finished up the album, I decided to keep exploring and began teaching myself Cinema 4D. At this moment, I am about 2 weeks into learning but I am having a blast creating basic 3D art pieces every day- which I am sharing through my Facebook & Instagram.
My hobbies bring fulfillment that working on companies never did
I can sit and work on music or 3D art for hours on end without getting bored. Everyday, I learn something new, or create something and feel an absolute fulfillment unlike anything I ever experienced working on companies.
In business, sure, I enjoy what I do. But I can't say that I would sit around and work all day just because. Years ago, I may have lied to myself about this, but today I realize that work is work.
Instead of showing up everyday expecting to find my purpose in my companies, I wake up, focus on my purpose, and then run my companies in the remaining time.
Yes, I could be working more and going faster... but why?
As I write this post, I am surrounded by friends and peers who work countless hours. They are in non-stop hustle mode and many of them are growing their companies at rapid paces.
When I launched Lead Cookie, I grew from Zero to $33k MRR in 6 months. While that growth was good, I was also working 12 hours days, weekends, and hardly did anything but work during that time...
It was exhausting.
And so now, I look at friends who are working around the clock to build their companies faster and I ask, "But why?"
Maybe they have some motivation or financial reason to grow that fast... but there is so much research now showing that more money doesn't make you happier.
So why work so much...
Why not just get your companies to a stable level and then build for freedom instead of increased cash?
That is where my head is at these days...
Limiting my work time forces me to build self-sustaining companies
The other interesting benefit of having a hobby is that it eats up a lot of my time which, in turn, limits the amount of time that I can work on my companies.
This forces me to work smarter instead of harder.
It forces me to give more responsibility to my team.
It forces me to be ok going a bit slower as opposed to rapidly fast.
When I am not in the driver seat every day hustling, I am forced to operate my companies in a different way.
I fix problems through systems instead of by action.
And I try to stay zoomed out on the bigger picture instead of in the weeds.
Having a hobby forces me to figure out how to run my companies with less mindshare and less time focus than before. While you could argue this slows me down, it also creates incredible freedom at the same time.
Try it out, get a hobby
While this may sound obvious, it's not as easy as it may seem. I didn't start 2019 saying I wanted to be a musician and 3D artist.
Instead, I said that I wanted to write a book.
I tried, but didn't like it.
Then, I tried something else- learning piano.
Then, I learned music production.
Then, 3D art...
And now, I am becoming a digital artist and electronic music producer.
And who knows where this will take me...
But the key is that I didn't know this was the path I would follow at the start. I just started trying other creative outlets other than working... I tried until something stuck. And then I just kept going.
Try it out, get a hobby.
You might miss the first time.
But if you find something that sticks, it will bring you fulfillment that your work never could.
How some of my hobby’s unfolded
Eventually this hobby actually transformed into a profitable business when I partnered with a team member in the Philippines to create one of the best ukulele brands in the world. Check out Huni Ukulele’s.