Keeping Your Balance

We are called to live a balanced life. Entrepreneurs cannot truly claim success when the business is doing well but so much else is falling apart. Success is not just who you are in the workplace. It is also who you are as a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a friend.

That is why we must look at all times beyond the pursuit of profit to see what makes it all worthwhile. Why are we making money? For the sake of making money?

I have identified five foundations essential to building a balanced life. Once those foundations are in place, a business can be built upon solid ground. These are not taught in business schools. These are taught in the school of life, and I have been an observant student.

These are the Five Foundations, or the Five F’s, as I call them. I will explore each of them in future blogs:

  • Faith in a Future
  • Family Foremost
  • Firm Commitment
  • Fitness to Serve
  • Fellowship and Sharing  

Entrepreneurs who have a firm footing in those foundations will then benefit all the more from five other fundamentals that are more directly related to developing a relevant business. I call those the Five Principles, or P’s, of business success.

I have talked with so many fellow entrepreneurs and executives about the secrets to success, and they often speak in the jargon of business schools. They talk about formulas and projections. They cite margins and quotas. All are very important, of course, but governing those particulars are the fundamental formulas that bring about prosperity.

These are my Five Principles for business success, and these, too, we will be exploring in later posts:

  • Passion Within
  • Purpose to Pursue
  • Plan of Action
  • PRIME Time
  • Paying it Forward

Success is built upon the interplay of these ten fundamentals. When they are in balance, we can find true satisfaction in business and in life. I’ve often found that when chatting with other professionals, we might start out by talking about what’s up with their company but wind up focusing on what’s up with their families, or their friends, or what’s happening around town. It’s this business of living that always seems to come first – as so it should. When it does, the rest falls into place.

Dr. Rob Douk is a clinician turned social entrepreneur, executive coach, and the ForbesBooks Featured Author of The Fearless Socialpreneur. For more information, visit https://drdouk.com/

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He’s been named a Top 30 Entrepreneur in his 30s by the Silicon Review, a UCLA Wooden Global Leadership Fellow. Dr. Douk has received awards related to entrepreneurship including the…

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