Latest / The Property Entrepreneurs Podcast with Alasdair Cunningham / I'm a Workaholic, and Here's Why You Shouldn't Copy Me

Transcript

I'm a Workaholic, and Here's Why You Shouldn't Copy Me · The Property Entrepreneurs Podcast with Alasdair Cunningham

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Prophet Podcast.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: My name is coming up with 625 podcasts on the 700s to the right place.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're looking to build a floppy business, really coming to FTOP at 7am.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Strategy, insights, and techniques at work today.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Apple podcast and Audible.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's cut on it and let's build your business.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Property Entrepreneurs Podcast.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And today I want to talk about the business life balance or the work life balance, however you want to refer to it.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've been enjoying the show, please do make sure you uh you follow the podcast on whatever platform you're you're listening to us on so you get the notifications every day.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you're also connecting with me on Instagram.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um go on over to Instagram and if you've got any questions or if you've got any anything you want or need, um drop me a message on Instagram and I'll I'll perhaps cover it on the on the on the show one day.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you've got something specific to you that may they may help you with that.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: All right, I want to talk about work-life balance.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um listen, I am how can I put this in a nice way?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a workaholic, okay?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I love business, I love working, and I love hustling, right?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm guilty of making that priority.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I am, I I absolutely am.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm guilty of making that the number one, like, you know, screw having a social life, you know, your you know, friends, things like that, they come second, business comes first.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm I'm the sort of person that will, you know, be up at one o'clock in the morning working on my laptop because I've got an idea.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you might you might see me many times posting on Instagram at two or three o'clock in the morning.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's because I'm I'm busy and I'm working and I've got things going on, right?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um I also have a terrible sleep pattern, and so I'm actually most productive from you know 10 o'clock onwards.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh 10 o'clock till four, five o'clock in the morning.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's when I'm really productive because that's when I get a lot of stuff done on my on my laptop, on the systems, on the business side of things, okay?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like for instance, I'm actually recording this podcast and it is half past midnight.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's not even, you know, during the day right now.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I am a bit of a workaholic, okay?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And there's nothing wrong with that, right?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, the you know, if you want the success, you've got you've got to work for it, okay?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: But please, please, please, please, please, just listen to me here.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Take it from me.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I really want you to understand I'm not glorifying being a workaholic.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that that's the way you've got to do it, I'm just saying that's how I work.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I that also comes with huge sacrifice, and that also comes with you know sleepless nights, it comes with being exhausted, and there's a lot of things that are a consequence of that way of doing business, okay?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I really want you to understand you need a work-life balance, you need a business life balance, okay.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I need you, I need you to make a commitment to your family and yourself that you are going to dedicate time to just not working.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and you can work all you want, but I need you to dedicate time to actually doing something that's not work-related, even if it's going for a walk, even if it's taking the dog out, even if it's, you know, being with your partner, going out for a meal, just do something that's not work-related.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a there's some there's some reasons that I tell you this, because you know, I've lost things in my life that I probably wouldn't have lost if I was more focused on work-life balance.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I've had health issues because I've been so exhausted.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've had mental health issues because I've been so exhausted, and it doesn't make sense to sacrifice all this for what?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: For a little bit of money, and then then what?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: You get ill and then what?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can't spend it or you can't enjoy it.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: So let's not do that, okay?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: So what what I need you to do is I need you to make a commitment to yourself, to the show, to your family, that you're going to allocate whatever time you can allocate on a weekly basis to, you know, go out with your partner, have a date night, enjoy time with your kids, have a have a have have some time where you're not glued to your laptop or glued to your phone.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Go for a drive and not be thinking about work.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Just have some downtime.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I do have a couple of, you know, over the last year or two, I've not slowed down, but I've started dedicating a bit more time to me, okay, and a bit more time to actually enjoying myself and having a life.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I am very heavily involved in now is I I'm involved in cart racing, so I do a lot of motorsport racing.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I I only race probably five or six times a year, but when I'm racing, I switch off from everything.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, that's like a uh it's a great way to just have downtime, but also for me, I see it as a reward because racing is not cheap.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if I work hard, I can then afford to race, and um you know, I can enjoy that.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, that's that's what I do.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: I also play poker, so I I play poker one once or twice a week.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, it's not about the money, it's not about winning or losing.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: For me, it's about enjoying the game of poker.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, if you know anything about poker, you know it's there's a lot of math involved and there's a lot of um statistics involved, so it's it's quite uh intelligent game.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I I play poker quite a well, a couple of times, a couple of times a week usually.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: These are my things that I get downtime.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: I also like to enjoy time with my children, and I also like to enjoy other things that I don't like to, you know, talk too much about.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I like to keep some of my private life private if that makes sense.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um nothing fruity, of course.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just clear that up.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, like, you know, I just like to keep my my my arrangements and my family life, you know, away from the the public eye, so to speak.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um so look, do something to enjoy, enjoy yourself, do something to have downtime, and do something to just be present, okay?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um Just be present.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, over the last 18 months I've been dedicating more time to eating healthier and just you know getting into a bit better shape.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um I know you could technically say rounds of shape, but um it was just uh a bit of a big round and I you know I was getting a bit sick of it.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I have lost probably 18 kilograms in the last 18 months.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, I've been really focusing on trying to make me a better person, and you've got to do that for you, okay?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe you're into the gym, maybe you're into horses, maybe you're into I don't, I don't know, whatever you're into, whatever, whatever you're into, do it.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you're living life, okay?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Business should be to pay for things that you enjoy doing and give you the flexibility to enjoy doing them.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's what to me business is for.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I I'm guilty of not doing that.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: I really am.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm guilty of you know, going out and doing as much as I can in business, always focused on where the next the next dollars are coming from.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: But actually, sometimes you've got to sit back and just say to yourself, what the fuck am I doing this for?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, do you need 20 customers or can you make do with five?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do you need to do this or can you make do without it?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, I know there's the the whole grand plan of let's get as big as possible, but do you really need that?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or is getting to five grand a month consistently good enough for you?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's a lot to be said about that, okay?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And what I will say, do you know when you're doing your goal setting and you're you're sitting down making plans of where you want to be next year and the year after?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Put in there personal goals that don't require or don't revolve around business or money.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you want better relationships, maybe you want to get into shape, maybe you want to just actually be able to have two days off a week where you don't even think about business and it's non-negotiable.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a there's a lot to be said for that sort of stuff.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And also, you know, go and do that hobby, go and have that holiday, go and have that trip because you don't want to get you don't want to get to a point in your life where you know you're facing illness, you're facing unhappiness, separation, divorce, all that sort of stuff, and you don't want to be looking back and thinking if only I did that, I wouldn't be in this situation.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna tell you a quick story before we finish up for the day.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: I used to know a gentleman called Stuart, and he was very successful in business, and he made a lot of money, made a lot of money, and he loved he he loved making money, and his priority was making money money, money, money, make money, okay?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: He died at 50.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: He literally died before his 50th birthday and yeah, fine, his last couple of years were you know semi-retirement.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing he'd worked 25-30 years, worked his backside off for what to enjoy a year and a half of the benefit of the money?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: As we get older, we realise life gets shorter, there's got to be more to life than working 80 hours a week.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And listen, I am all for working hard, please don't think I'm not, but there's got to be a balance.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's gotta be a balance, there's gotta be a balance, and you've got to find that balance for you.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay for me, like I say, I do cart racing, I play poker a couple of times a week, and at the weekends I I try to limit what I'm doing work-wise.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I try to spend time with um my family, my friends.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's difficult, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna sit here and say it's not difficult because when I've when I've got things going on in the business, it is difficult to switch off, but you have to tell yourself to do it.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: You have to.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Your future self will thank you, but trust me on this.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: My my uh my current self is kicking myself for not doing this three years ago, four years ago, five years ago.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because it just you know the last four or five years have just flown by and don't get to the future part and have regrets about things.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Alright.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Go and do something fun, yeah.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Peace and march love, see you tomorrow.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's it for today, folks.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in to the Provide Entrepreneurs podcast.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hope you got massive value from today's show.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Share it with a friend, make sure you're liking it, make sure you're following it so you get the notifications the next time the show comes out at 7 a.m.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: tomorrow morning.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Also, jump over onto Instagram and Facebook, drop us a comment, let us know what you thought of today's show.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Head over to Alison.com for the main website to get free resources, free training, and keep up to date with what's going on in our world.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, property is all about building systems, created systems, created systems.