Your Calling Is Calling—Are You Free?

The number one reason most people want to buy or start a business is to achieve financial freedom, and part of that dream is to gain FREE time to do those things we all dream of accomplishing—maybe a "bucket list."

The sad thing is, although many small business owners make a fairly good wage, many never obtain the second part of that dream—having that quality free time, without the constant fear their company will fall apart in their absence.

A good wage doesn’t necessarily translate into a good living!

The title of a recent article in Success Magazine, "It's Your Calling Calling—Are you free?" written by Shawn Achor, really struck a chord with me. I hope Shawn won’t mind my borrowing at least part of that title for this blog, seeing its content is from a very different perspective—but it couldn’t be more suited to my message here.

The title brought me back to the time when I made the decision to leave the music business; to completely reverse course on a path I had traveled for 20 years as a coast-to-coast singer and band leader of a rock band, relentlessly trying to "make it big."

So abrupt was my course change, my friends, agents and a few family members were a little shocked, to say the least. They questioned my decision and, some, even my sanity. "Philip you spent so many years in music," they said, "why would you leave it all behind now when you’re so close to making it "BIG?" Well, that was their perception.

My answer to them? Music was NOT my "calling," although I had some success in it. Truth was, at that time I still didn't know what my calling was—I just knew what it wasn't.

The year was 1988, when I made the decision to hang up my microphone and start a printing company on, literally, a wing and a prayer, in a space about the size of a small apartment, some 400 square feet. After struggling a year or so, we started to grow at a very nice pace; but five years into my new life as the owner of a small printing shop, I found myself drowning in chaos and had no idea how to resolve it.

I was forced then to make another decision to find an answer—to stop the messes or just continue in the pain. I sought the advice of a business owner I knew who told me my chaos was all "normal—business as usual." Hmm!

I thought to myself, "If this is the life of a small business owner, I want no part of it!" I would start looking for a way out.

After a short-lived pity party, I made the decision to stop the madness, and I began reading everything I could get my hands on about business organization, quality control, ISO, and process management.
Over the next months and years, I started applying them in our small printing business with the same tenacity and excitement I had pursued music years before, and with new systems in place, we started growing at a phenomenal rate.

Several years into this new found mission, our company was running like a well-oiled machine, without my constant attention to everything. I found I had free time to do some of the things I always wanted to do, like restore an old southern house, write a business book—I even founded a software company, etc.

Other business owners took notice of our orderly business and began asking me to help them with their business. Several had asked me to write a book about how it all happened. Before I knew it, I found I really enjoyed systemizing a business and helping other business owners in their efforts.

You see, my business was no longer just a job—I believed I had also found my real "calling"—helping and coaching others on how to truly own their business, not just have a tough job working long hours bogged down in daily operations.

The point I want to make here is: your current business may NOT be your "calling;" however, if you take the cards you’ve been dealt—even if you feel stuck in a business you think now you should never have started or taken over—there IS a way out.

If you would turn what now feels like a burden into a well-oiled machine—using THE POWER OF SYSTEMS, whereas you wouldn't have to be on site all day long—I believe you will find the time to hear and answer your real "call."

Is that your "calling" calling? If so, are you free?

Did I mention? Great Systems Work!