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We have all heard about and perhaps envied the current crop of billionaire business founders, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates, who seem to have it all because of their financial success. Yet I am convinced, after mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs for many years, that more are motivated by lifestyle than money, and these are the ones that you should follow for true satisfaction.
The entrepreneur lifestyle embodies a mindset of passion for a lifestyle or cause before profit. These people are driven to change the world, but first are motivated to combine personal interests and talent with the ability to live happily in concert with their family and the local community. Finances are important, but not the overwhelming driver that we often associate with happy business owners.
In my experience, new business founders are more likely to be successful, as well as satisfied, if they embody a set of attributes that comprise what I define as the entrepreneur lifestyle mindset, including the following:
1. Enjoy direct interaction with customers and product. The lifestyle entrepreneur enjoys the early stages of business and tends to start new ones, rather than face the challenges of meeting Wall Street expectations, and hiring and developing personnel and processes to scale the business. They focus more on tactical rather than strategic issues.
2. Like to make and live by your own decisions. If you are frustrated by having to cater to the passions and objectives of those above you, and have no trouble making decisions, you are a good candidate to start a lifestyle business. Just be aware no business can be run alone, as you need a team to deliver and customers to satisfy.
3. Support and provide leadership to the local community. Leading a balanced personal and business lifestyle to overcome stress and isolation is important to the mindset of many business founders. These business leaders also expect a payback from the community in the form of customer referrals, loyalty, networking, and recognition.
4. Bootstrapping with personal assets is your ideal rollout. Dealing with demanding investors and equity funding is seen as a burden to be avoided, if possible. Of course, this may limit your business to organic growth, but that is an invigorating challenge. With a personal all-in lifestyle, your commitment and persistence is supported and rewarded.
5. Anxious to see a personal return on your investment. Corporate returns based on share value growth and the ultimate exit event are not your top priority. Your lifestyle and satisfaction depend on taking early distributions and a reasonable salary. Great financial results rolling into your pockets from early growth and scaling are important motivators.
6. Focus on steady revenue sources to support activities. The lifestyle entrepreneur does not seek the corporate management role but relishes a continual contribution in the field where they have a passionate interest and talent. In most cases, this passion has a higher purpose, such as saving the environment or helping the disadvantaged.
7. Leave a lasting legacy to family members at retirement. Community and family are important to the lifestyle entrepreneur, and these are most often the recipients of business legacy through designated ownership or philanthropic efforts. These business owners make no effort to exit from the business early, or to have their business acquired.
I am happy to report that many of the younger business founders I meet tend to be less driven by money, and are more focused on lifestyle, passion, and a higher purpose to make the world a better place. This may be idealistic, but I have found that dreamers with creativity have been the fountain of great innovations that we all take for granted in this chaotic world-wide marketplace.
I’m always disappointed to see needed innovations fail due to expectations of “get rich quick,” or unhappy business owners who have made their success financially, but are still unsatisfied. I wonder how many of the billionaires today are really happy, or wish they had focused more on their lifestyle than the business financials?
Related: 10 Innovation Lessons to Fast-Track Your Business Growth