Supposedly, the best way to run a business is like a soulless robot.

No emotion.

Just statistical analysis and coldhearted decisions making.

And honestly, that sounds like a pretty great way to do things.

But I can’t.

No matter how hard I try, at the end of the day I can’t tell where my personal life starts and my professional life ends. It’s all mixed up in this weird overly emotional orb that sort of just hangs out above me as I sit and type away at the computer.

When a client isn’t happy, I get sad. Well, actually sad isn’t the right word. I get bummed the f out.

When one of my workers doesn’t do something that I have asked them to do 500 times already in the past 3 weeks, the veins in my neck start pulsating so bad it knocks my head back and forth.

When I have to tell people no, I get sick to my stomach.

When I ask people for help and they point out how dumb I truly am, I want to throw my hands up and scream, “You are so damn right!” and just storm out of my own office, middle fingers raised to heaven, like I was quitting a minimum wage job.

It’s Hard To Care

Caring about your business is damn hard work.

It’s the kind of work that sneaks up on you in the middle of the night, interrupting that awesome dream you were having of flying through outerspace with Robert De Niro on a mission to save Captain Kirk from the clutches of Cthulhu and his hoard of “otherworldlies”.

Caring about your business means that BUSINESS IS PERSONAL.

Your business isn’t just a soulless entity. It is like a moody Italian lover.

One minute there is yelling so loud the neighbors complain.

The next, mindnumbingly blissful love making.

And that kind of up and down can wear a dude or dudette out.

5 Tips For Making The Emotional Roller Coaster Of Business Less Freaky

#1. Do Something Else

Your business can only be all consuming if you don’t do anything else.

Your business will fill whatever void you have in your life. So get rid of the voids.

Make friends.

Fall in love. With your spouse/significant other again. With someone new. With reading.

Take up kayaking, snorkeling, running, yoga, cooking, building tiny houses, SOMETHING!

You need a break from your business.

But don’t fall into the trap of empty space.

It won’t work.

You will be devoured.

#2. Find People More Stable Than You

Get a mentor.

Join a Facebook group of like-minded people.

Hire a business consultant.

Interact with someone else on a regular basis that can look at your business objectively.

If someone relies on your business to succeed in order to put food in their mouth, they do not qualify for this position.

They are as emotionally wrapped up in what you are doing as you are.

Instead, surround yourself with people who can look at what you are doing objectively.

#3. Create YOUR Business

I am as guilty of this as the next person.

Most of us create businesses that we think will “work”.

In short, we become slaves to the demands of the market INSTEAD of providing leadership in the marketplace.

In other words, don’t bend to the market. Don’t sell out. Don’t do it their way.

It won’t benefit you. At all.

You will get nothing.

Only people who stand up, say “Screw you”, and build THEIR business THEIR way survive.

Conforming and being an entrepreneur are mutually exclusive.

Build a business that YOU want to run.

End of story.

#4. Care About Something Other Than The Money

Seriously.

Just try it for one week.

Instead of putting all your emotional baggage onto this fleeting, non-real thing we call money, try putting your emotional baggage on something important.

Example:

This week, just about everything pissed me off about my copywriting business.

Why?

Because I was just thinking about the money.

*Slap in the face*

I completely lost sight of everything important.

Stuff like, I was able to continue to help put food on the table of my worker bees.

My influence/reach is growing.

I didn’t have to go to a day job.

All of a sudden, when I stop thinking about the money, I had a pretty damn good week.

#5. Buy A Punching Bag

Best business investment I ever made.

One Everlast heavy bag, hanging in my garage, has saved me probably $30,000 in therapist costs.

Dumb client? Punch it out.

Frustrating worker bee? Punch it out.

Writers block? Punch it out.

Stupid FB comment from a troll? Punch it out.

That single investment has allowed me to keep caring about my business without completely losing my mind.