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This is the first article of mine to be published on the American Express Open Forum…
Hope you enjoy it…
I’d love your comments on their site – and suggestions for future articles you want from me there too.
May 18, 2010 -
This article is about the emotional intricacies of being a CEO or entrepreneur and the emotional roller coaster you’ll ride, or are already riding. Marc Andreesen, co-founder of Netscape, once wrote:……
I’m not sure why it’s so common, but entrepreneurs tend to overwhelm themselves with guilt for not working around the clock. Often our non-business owner friends wonder why we work so hard, or why we can’t ever ‘disconnect.’
Start building a network of fellow entrepreneurs that understand your passion and don’t make you feel guilty about always chasing it.
And stop feeling guilty about unplugging and taking time off at the random times you need it too. Think of it like plugging in your iPhone. You don’t feel guilty about that.
On April 8th – I woke up at 4am for what was set to be a busy week but one that felt doable. I had no idea how hard the travel would be.
I was set to speak in:
You can’t make this shit up…
Flight to Edmonton went fine. My talk in Edmonton went great. My flight to Calgary from Edmonton went fine. And the lounge in Calgary was empty and I waited 2 hours for my Calgary to Frankfurt flight which was to leave at 4pm.
I boarded the plane at 3:30. At 3:35 it started snowing. At 7:30pm we were still on the tarmac and they canceled our flight as the crew would now have been on too long. Re-scheduled for 1am. So the next five hours were mixed with me spending time on cell phones to Air Canada trying to re-book my connecting flight from Frankfurt to Bahrain – after 28 min on hold I hung up by accident, then calling a 2nd time I had to phone while sitting on the floor to keep my phone plugged in as the battery was down to 3% – amazingly they said they’d make it happen. OK. Now for food. Everything was closed. The Calgary airport was under lockdown due to a 2 hour power outage from the storm. And the lounge was also closed. At midnight I found a little shop that had left their fridge unlocked. So like Jean Valjean from Les Miserable I took a bottle of water and a handful of crackers from the bar area – and I left a $5 bill in the fridge so as to not get called a thief 
We boarded our plane at 1am – and that flight was delayed until 4:20am due to the ice buildup on the plane. The crew gave it a 4:30am cut off and said if it was’t ready they’d be cancelling this one too – we finally left Calgary 12.5 hours after our scheduled start – luckily I was in Business Class – unluckily I’d already missed my new re-booked connections in Frankfurt so I was showing up there with no booked flight to Bahrain.
On the whole flight I knew I needed to have a few people ready to help me on arrival in Europe, so while all the other passengers complained and ranted, I became the best friends of three flight attendants. I told them how much I needed a connecting flight to appear – and they got on Telex to the airport while we were in flight and made it happen for me. I was met at the gate by the Concierge for Air Canada Super Elite passengers (I’m only Elite which is still pretty high up) – Air Canada had purchased a Business Class ticket for me on Emerites Airlines – no questions asked – and they wisked me past hundreds of lined up people at Security where I just made my flight to Dubai.
On landing in Dubai I raced to get the connecting Bahrain flight – and dripping with sweat I boarded as the gates closed. I was wearing a Blazer at every interaction with airline people to try to look professional – even though I’d been traveling for 28 hours at this point – and awake for about 40.
My flight to Bahrain went perfectly until just as we were getting ready to land a DHL plane crash landed on the only runway – causing our flight to be diverted to Dumman, Saudi Arabia for 3 hours. In all I made it to Bahrain in time to do my talk – however I arrived 16 hours later than planned.
And amazingly my trip home was almost as crazy.
Upon arriving in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on the 15th, five minutes before my talk started I was told that a Volcano in Iceland was shutting down Heathrow where my flights were connecting to. I had a two flights connecting in Heathrow that would have had me in Vancouver 16 hours later. So the saga continues… I’m back on the phone with Air Canada from a wireless hotel lobby phone – which dies just as they are ticketing my new connecting flights via Frankfurt. So I borrow phone number two, and call back. They’ve booked me on Luftansa an Air Canada partner via Frankfurt and my trip will now be 24 hours later yet still 16 hours travel – feels OK – so I fly off to Riyadh to wait in a pre-war decorated, airport hotel, with 2 hour wireless cards that fail every 7-8 minutes.
I wake in the middle of the night thinking about the Volcanic Ash cloud and wondering if Frankfurt would be impacted – so at 4am I’m back online and sure enough German airports are beginning to close. I toss and turn all night and at 10am am frantically trying to get ahold of Air Canada or Luftansa with no luck due to time zones, and the fact that Friday in Saudi is a day when virtually no offices are open. So at 11:00am I decide to pack up from the hotel, head to the airport and take matters into my own hands. I’m determined to find a way home – and in my mind I already know that I won’t be flying via Europe – it’ll be via Cairo or Asia…
After getting lost in the Bowels of Riyadh airport at ‘airline offices’ which turn out to be where the baggage is controlled from it dawns on me – maybe there is a travel agent here. And sure enough – 20 minutes walk through 3 terminals I find one. Bear in mind I’m the only person not wearing the traditional Saudi Dress – and when everyone is walking towards the mosque to pray at noon I’m walking against the flow…
I did it though – I found a place – while booking my ticket the man looked up and said “what is your religion” I replied “catholic” – and he smiled and whispered – oh – do you like Johnny Walker Black Label – umm ya – connnection made – they ‘can’t drink’ in Saudi but most do privately I paid $3,700 for a one-way, Business class ticket home to Vancouver. Total flight time 26 hours, total time including connections would be 33.5 hours – Riyadh-Bahrain-Manila-Vancouver – but I’d get home.
And get home I did. 30 hours later than planned – but days ahead if I’d gone to Europe… 11 flights in 8 days.
And yesterday – to my surprise & joy – Air Canada blew me away and credited my $4,200 for the tickets I didn’t use coming home So I actually covered my hotel costs, wireless cards, and some of the crazy data roaming I’m sure to get creamed with…
Lessons:
This Baja Peninsula photo is of Yanik Silver and members of Maverick Business Adventures – an organization I’m close with that takes driven entrepreneurs on trips so they can play really, really hard.
Recently, a would-be entrepreneur told me he was working constantly and struggled to read books for fun. I threw down the gauntlet and told him he’d never be a successful entrepreneur until he figured out how to get a life. I told him to read the book Endurance
I’m not an expert in work/life balance, but I’ve crashed twice, and hard. Harder than I’d wish anyone else to so I try to help as best I can.
We have all heard the saying ‘work hard play hard’, but rarely do most entrepreneurs live it. Nowadays, people do a lot of hard work, but when it comes time to fulfill the other end of the obligation, we give up, bringing our laptops, cell phones, and other ‘work’ items into our ‘play time.’ And from what I recall as a kid, playing hard didn’t include toting along our homework or smart phone. We just played–played until we dropped from laughing so hard. Played until we dropped from exhaustion and slept like babies. It’s time to return to that kind of play, not just for your individual sanity, but for the sake of those you care for.
“Mens sana in corpore sano” is Latin for “a healthy mind in a healthy body”
This is a lesson I learned the hard way at only 8 years old.
By 8 I’d already become a certified card addict and had gotten pretty cocky with my cribbage skills.
One day at our cottage a friend of my fathers was talking about cribbage. And I proudly said ‘I can beat you.’ To which he replied, ‘don’t be so sure, and don’t bet unless you can afford to lose’. I said fine I’ll bet you $7.00.
I’m not sure where $7.00 came from but in 1974 that was a LOT of money especially for an 8 year old.
I didn’t have that much money so I said if I lost he could have my new bike. I knew I wouldn’t lose. He agreed to put up $7.00.
Ummm, I lost.
And my bike disappeared into the trunk of his car. The next day he drove away with it.
I was shocked and in tears. For three days I never saw my bike.
My father then phoned his friend and negotiated a trade. I’d do jobs around our cottage area to earn $7.00 if he’d sell me my bike back.
See the receipt attached…
Note: It’s hard to see – but I love that he even got creative and made it Invoice # 69
Quite the character. And quite the lesson. To this day. I ONLY risk what I can afford to lose. Sometimes the risk is worth it.
This is just a really funny video.
And because this is my blog I felt like doing something really random and a bit manic. I’m posting it here. I laugh my ass off watching these. Google “Fred” and watch a few. My two boys and I literally tear up while watching them.
This one just made me think about how manic I get at times running companies. I’m sure a few other entrepreneurs feel the same. Do you ?
Many extremely successful entrepreneurs are even clinically diagnosed Manic Depressive or Bi-Polar (Bi-Polar Disorder is nicknamed, “The CEO Disease”).
Francis Ford Coppola has it. So does Ted Turner. Jim Clark, cofounder of Netscape, was described in Business Week by Netscape’s other cofounder, Jim Barksdale, as someone “who has his mania only partly under control. He’s a perpetual motion machine with a short attention span, forever hurtling at unsafe speeds. When his forward motion is impeded, Clark becomes irritable and bored. In his search for the stimulation of the ‘new, new thing,’ he quickly loses interest in the companies and ideas he starts and tosses them into the laps of his bewildered employees.”
Bill Gross, CEO of Idealab, was written up by a Fortune editor who apologized and said, “I believed him because I was dazzled by him. He had an infectious boyish enthusiasm that was charming and irresistible. He spoke so rapidly—jumping from topic to topic as if he were hyper-linking. It was hard to keep up with him. He had so much energy he seemed constantly on the verge of jumping out of his skin. He bubbled over with optimism.”
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been described as “hypomanic” and “unable to think outside the box – because he doesn’t even see the box. He’s also been described as quick to fly off the handle emotionally.
Here’s a note from a CEO’s blog:
“Today is Wednesday, and I haven’t been able to accomplish anything so far this week. It’s not that I don’t have plenty to do – I just can’t shake this depression long enough to do it. Last week I was a whirlwind – this week I’m a slug. My insomnia has been bad the past week or so, and it’s only when my body can’t go on any longer that I sleep. This lack of sleep makes my mind sluggish too…and it takes a great deal of time and effort to accomplish even the simplest of tasks. Intellectually I know what needs to be done…but emotionally I just don’t have what it takes to get a move on….
I’m trying to take things one day at a time, but it’s so hard to keep from thinking of what the future holds in store for me. I’m sad that I didn’t do more to keep in touch with friends I have known for years. I guess I could attempt to re-connect with some of these folks, but the embarrassment of my current situation is just too much right now…. sigh.
Something needs to change pretty soon or I’m afraid I won’t be able to crawl out from under my rock and I’ll end up in a home, or worse. This is not a good day at all. Perhaps tomorrow will be better. “
It’s not about what’s in your head, it’s about what’s in your gut.
How will you use what you’re feeling to help you become really successful??
I hope you are seeking the answer. This is one of the many areas I mentor the CEOs I do in our bi-weekly coaching sessions too.
Entrepreneurship puts you on an emotional roller coaster unlike anything else on earth.
You will flip from being convinced you will own the world, to being overwhelmed by doom and ruin, and back again. Over and over. And over.
There is so much uncertainty and risk around everything you are doing. Will the product ship on time? Will anyone use it? Will your competitor beat you to market? Will anyone invest in the company? And on and on and on…
The level of stress you are under as an entrepreneur magnifies those data points into extreme highs and lows at whiplash speed and huge magnitude
Sound like fun?
Most entrepreneurs have at least five of these traits. Do you?
• Are you filled with energy?
• Does your mind get flooded with ideas?
• Are you driven, restless, and unable to keep still?
• Do you often work on little sleep?
• Can you be euphoric?
• Do you easily get irritated by minor obstacles?
• Can you burnout periodically?
• Do you act out sexually?
• Do you feel persecuted by those who do not accept your vision?
Don’t worry, but the reality is, this is what happens to stable entrepreneurs. This is one of the many areas I regularly coach & mentor entrepreneurs so they learn how to overcome and leverage each stage of.
