How to Manage All Your Responsibilities as an Entrepreneur
— by John Hawkins
Seething over her seat assignment, Sarah collapsed into center seat 20B. No first-class upgrades, no aisle coach seats, and no approaching end to this exasperating day. It would be after midnight before she would finally rest in a hotel room in Cleveland.
As the jet lumbered down the runway, she wondered about her life. Her husband, Mike, and their teenagers, Matt and Amber, were the most precious parts of her life. Were her career and salary really worth the time she spent away from them? She always dreaded these monthly Chicago-Cleveland-Boston trips, but her boss had made it clear that they were non-negotiable. Sarah also knew that her next promotion would involve even more travel.
Reaching for her laptop, she wondered how Mike’s day had gone. Home Depot, Lowes and Wal-Mart constantly challenged the profitability of his small chain of garden supply stores. The pressure seemed to be taking its toll. In fact, Mike told her recently that he felt like part of him had been destroyed over the last year. They both dreamed of taking a week or two vacation with just each other, but it didn’t look possible anytime soon. Besides, how could they be gone that long from Matt and Amber?
Pushing through the clouds and the turbulence, the plane sailed onward. Today was Matt’s quarterfinal soccer game. Sarah was so proud of him, both on and off the soccer field. His impish smile and quick rapport made him a “people magnet.” He would only be at home two more years before leaving for college—possibly West Point. Mike and Sarah both believed that significant parenting still needed to be done before Matt would be ready to transition out of their home. And then there was Amber—precious, impressionable, over-achieving Amber. Sarah was convinced that Amber desperately needed her to be home more. In some ways, they were very much alike, but their interactions were often volatile. Sarah sometimes wondered if she knew anything at all about raising a daughter. She believed that parenting, preparing the next generation, was part of her “calling,” or highest aim in life. How could she be so unprepared for the most important job she would ever have?
Sarah finished her pretzels and Diet Coke and absent-mindedly dusted off her hands. She knew she should start entering her data into her computer, but she couldn’t shake her introspective mood. Maybe she was eroding in the same way as Mike. She was convinced that her influence in her family, church, and the community arts council was declining. These three spheres of influence and her job were her only significant commitments. In each area, she felt a sense of “calling,” as if contributions in these areas were part of her ultimate purpose in life. They were all important, and she had to be successful in each! “It’s all important and it all has to work,” she desperately whispered to herself.
As Sarah finally began keying in her sales data, she grimly compared her life to the spreadsheet. Her life was made up of separate but interconnected little boxes or cells, too. She didn’t have enough resources to go around, and the data in the cells of life kept running together.
God is sovereign over all of life. His call to Christian leaders is to live for Him in all of life. Yet like Sarah, we often feel that our lives’ compartments are at war with each other. Our commitments to marriage, family, career, community and church are all important and they all need to work. Where do we begin in faithfully managing all our responsibilities?
A clear life vision that is God-centered and Biblically-based is essential. Proverbs 29:18 states that where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained. In other words, without a vision, we spend our lives wandering around, often tyrannized by the urgent rather than consistently pursuing all the essential things to which God has called us. The Leadership Edge Life Vision Statement is: By God’s grace, to step forward as God’s man/woman, in my spheres of influence, to serve His purposes, for His glory. This vision statement is a clearly stated daily reminder of that to which God has called us. It especially reminds us to live out daily faith and faithfulness in all of our spheres of influence – not just in the ones that are screaming the loudest or in the most profound crisis. Finally, the vision statement reminds us that success is measured by was it done in faith and was it done for God’s glory?
With a clear God-centered, Biblically-based vision, we see that life compartments like public and private, career or family, and secular or spiritual are misguiding. All life contexts are important, and all have to work. God’s calling is for us to live a unified life with a consistent message in all of life. This pushes us to prayerfully work toward faithfulness in all our spheres of influence through faithfully managing their competing demands. Sarah’s need is the same as ours – living life as one reality and not living as victims, or willing accomplices, to the demands of one area over another.
For Sarah, and for us, growth in faithfulness to God and others in all of our spheres of influence requires three things: 1.) Honest and prayerful self-assessment, 2.) Counsel and feedback from trusted folks around us, and 3.) God’s wisdom, strength and grace to forge us into the leaders He has called us to be. Like Sarah, all of our responsibilities are important, and we need to be faithful in all of them. It is a great God-centered adventure to which we’re called. May we pursue it, in faith, with everything we have.
The original version of this article appeared in Leadership as a Lifestyle, John Hawkins, Executive Excellence Publishing.