Get my Freedom
07/19/2019
FREEDOM
I didn’t feel free at all. I felt like a prisoner to my own business
I was going to fail… until I found this
I was at a basketball game a few years ago, rooting on a professional team from the next town over. The playoffs were just around the corner and this was a pivotal game, a must-win as they call it, and it was close… too close. As the halftime buzzer loudly rang, I let out a big sigh of air… apparently, I had been holding my breath down the stretch. As I contemplated taking the arduous journey up the arena’s steps, through the throngs of people, eventually overpaying for a subpar hotdog – a diminutive figure made its way out to center court. As I squinted my eyes to better focus on what was taking place, I noticed a little woman in a brightly-colored, silk costume. I took notice as she began to spin plates on top of thin poles that were a few feet taller than she was. Before I could blink, she had 10 plates spinning all at once.
As she finished with the tenth plate, the first one she had put up started to wobble a bit as it lost speed. She quickly moved to it, and with a flick of her wrist and the deft touch of her fingers, got the plate spinning optimally once again. But… just as she got the first plate back where it needed to be, the second and third plates started to waiver. I thought for sure one of them was going to fall and shatter on the court’s wood floor below. Minutes past, and not one plate fell. The lady frantically ran from plate to plate preventing a crash through the gyroscopic motion of the spin. I don’t know what her anxiety was like… but mine was through the roof just watching. Eventually it ended, but not before I had this thought, “how long could she honestly keep this up for… at some point, she had to fail.”
Years later, I started my first company… and I became the plate spinner. I proudly named myself CEO, and quickly learned that it stood for Chief Everything Officer. There were so many things that had to be handled every day, and I was the only one there to do it. Frantically running around keeping everything moving; marketing, sales, business development, programming, customer service, HR, packing and shipping, etc. And then the startling flashback to the basketball game… “how long could I honestly keep this up for… at some point, I had to fail! And my anxiety… through the roof.
The solution was to quickly surround myself with help. As I brought people on to take over different tasks/departments, it was hard to let go. I was so used to touching all the facets of the company, that I worried about how things were being handled… especially when I wasn’t there. I assumed that there would be a sense of freedom as a business owner… isn’t that why I started it in the first place? But I didn’t feel free at all.
I felt like a prisoner to my own business. Like an anxious, over-the-top, first-time parent who wakes up for every little sound they hear throughout the night… checking the monitor ad nauseam to make sure everything is ok; knowing that they can never leave the house because of the guilt of leaving their child with someone else.
And then things changed… for the better. I finally started to settle down as I surrounded myself with amazing… very capable… employees, who I trusted to do a good job. I knew they loved the company as much as I did, and worked their guts out to break through limits and hit ever growing goals.
That wasn’t all though. There was one more piece to the puzzle. One more solution that had eluded me over the years that I finally was able to adopt and run with. A new brand of technology.
I installed a new commercial security system… and it’s the greatest choice I ever made. It’s my Zen.
PEACE OF MIND
Did someone access the inventory room after hours? Was that a false alarm or a real one? Was the alarm turned on tonight? With real-time notifications, remote control and auto-arming, I now know what’s happening at my business, and know it’s secure, no matter where I am or what time it is.
KEEP AN EYE ON THINGS
I can see all the important activity at my business, even when I’m on the road. With single and multi-site viewing, live-streaming, recorded video and real-time notifications, it’s easy to see what’s happening when I can’t be there.
NO WORRYING THAT OTHERS WILL FORGET
I set up your system to arm automatically at a certain time each day or on a schedule that works with your business hours… and it was easy to do.
ENERGY SAVINGS
I even save energy. Using on-site thermostat lock-out, employees can’t crank up the air conditioning or blast the heat outside of a temperature range that I define. I connected all my lights, locks and thermostats to the security system to ensure that my business is at a comfortable temperature when it’s open and energy efficient when it’s closed.
SECURITY
Whether you have a small team or hundreds of employees like I now do, you can easily manage multiple access plans, remotely lock or unlock doors and monitor activity at your business.
Did I stop worrying about my business? No!
Is it constantly on my mind? Yes.
But… knowing that I can check in when I want to, or get alerts when things aren’t right… I can actually step away and enjoy a vacation from time to time. Or enjoy my son’s baseball game or my daughter’s dance recital. I mean, that’s why I got into this in the first place right? Freedom.
