A Lesson From the Richest Man in the World
In 1870, John D. Rockefeller (perhaps you’ve heard of him) co-founded Standard Oil, which went on to become the largest and most profitable oil refinery business in the world.
By the early 20th century, Rockefeller had become the richest person in modern history. His net worth stood at a TOWERING $400 billion (adjusted for inflation). That’s enough cash to fill 16 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Why are we giving you a history lesson on John D. Rockefeller?
Because, within his story of growing immense wealth, lies the heart behind one of the core tenets of The Wealthy Consultant.
You see, every dollar in his gigantic fortune couldn’t buy him something he desperately wanted… a healthy relationship with his wife and his 4 children.
While he always provided for them financially, many accounts show that his relationship with his family was often distant and transactional, owing to the stress and strain of running his massive empire.
So, although he was rich… he was not wealthy.
Redefining Wealth
What do we mean when we say that the richest man in the world was actually not wealthy?
Real wealth is not measured simply by money. Wealth is a holistic term that applies to winning across a broad spectrum of your life – health, relationships, time, energy, legacy…
Winning in one area is not an excuse for mediocrity in all of the others.
However, that seems to be the narrative being pushed inside of the coaching and consulting community. Everyone wants to be Rockefeller – and they think that the only way to do that is to be so single-minded about their business that they leave no room for EXCELLENCE as a spouse, as a parent, as a friend.
Important Vs. Urgent
You can build great things, big things, profitable things… WHENEVER. You choose the start, you choose the end. You decide when to show up and put in the work.
You can’t be an amazing father or mother “whenever.” Moments will come when your children will need you, and you will either show up for them, or you won’t. You don’t get to decide when these moments are. Life chooses them for you.
The only decision you get to make is whether or not you’ll come through for them.
These are “non-renewable” moments. They are truly important.
The devilishly tricky thing about building a business is that your brain will take things that feel urgent and try to elevate their importance.
Hear this very clearly, please (for your own benefit). Every moment in your business is a renewable moment. You can always make more money. You can always rebuild that system. You can always fix that fulfillment issue. You can always launch that marketing campaign.
You CAN’T go back in time and attend your son’s soccer game that you missed.
You CAN’T reverse the clock and spend the afternoon playing in the snow with your daughter.
You CAN’T un-break a broken promise to your kids.
Live for the most important parts of life FIRST and foremost. The urgent will rarely line up with the important — and when they do, it means you’ve neglected the important for so long that it has BECOME urgent.
Creating Healthy Boundaries
Set up boundary lines around your work and your family time.
To some extent, grind and hustle will ALWAYS be required in order to build something truly exceptional. There will inevitably be seasons where you will need your head to be down, putting in the reps to build.
Here’s a simple piece of advice for those seasons.
When you’re home… BE HOME.
Be fully present with your spouse, your kids, and the people that you care about.
Our team will work and hustle with the best in the world. But when we get home to our families, we are intentional (key word) about protecting that time at all costs.
As an example, a member of our executive team deletes the Slack app off of his phone every weekend so that he’s not tempted to check it while he spends time with his family. Everyone on the team knows that if something urgent happens and they need his help, they need to call or text him – otherwise it can wait until Monday when he logs back on.
Maybe it’s not Slack for you… perhaps it’s Stripe, or your project management software, or your CRM. Whatever it for you that pulls your head back into “business mode” when you should be with your family needs to have HARD boundaries placed around it.
The Key is in the Fruit
At the end of the day, we strive to help our clients experience “winning” across the entire spectrum. For most of them, it looks something like this:
- A healthy marriage
- Children that love them and actually get meaningful time with them
- Friends that are inspired by them (not threatened)
- Freedom in their time, energy, and health
- A business that they run (rather than it running them)
We help people achieve it every single day, because we’ve lived it – we know what it takes to get there.
If you’re a real expert, who is struggling to build a business that’s profitable and sustainable, and you don’t want to do it at the expense of your family, your health, or your faith… take a second and talk to a member of our team.
We help people just like you.
