Why Mixing Business With Pleasure Is Your Recipe For Success There's a way to do what you love and make a living at it. Here's one entrepreneur's success story.
By Matt Eldridge •
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Have you wondered why we're told not to mix business with pleasure? Or worse, why so many have come to accept this as the social norm?
For me, being an entrepreneur has always been about freedom. Not just the freedom from, but freedom to -- the freedom to pursue what I love and spend my time the way I want. Mixing business with pleasure is precisely the mentality behind my startup, Foursum Golf.
Like most people, over the years, I had come to believe there was a time for work and a time for play. Although I've always loved technology and problem solving, these chapters in my life highlighted the difference between loving what you're doing (being an entrepreneur) but not doing what you love (playing golf). I still wasn't convinced work and play had to be mutually exclusive.
Related: Entrepreneurs Who Turned Hobbies into Million-Dollar Businesses
So I started a company that uses technology to give people more reasons to play the game we all love.
It's not always comfortable to challenge the status quo but that's also part of the fun. Finding people who are just as passionate about the venture as you, can make all the difference. Lucky for me, my fellow co-founders, Adam Macdonald and Louis Melanson, were both wicked smart, packed with experience and die-hard golfers. Most importantly, like me, they loved a good challenge.
For a lot of people, golf is often linked to your golden years of retirement. Our team, however, believes that enjoying your life doesn't have to come only at the end of a long career. It doesn't have to exclude working really hard.
Most people think they want to see numbers and metrics to gauge success, but for those truly looking to design their ideal life, success is when you know exactly why you do what you do. For me, the why is clear: I want to play and grow the game of golf.
Sometimes I can hardly believe that I get to do both. This makes me happy. This makes my passionate team of entrepreneurs and golfers happy. And of course, happiness fuels success.
Of course, building and running a business is not all fun and games, but some days, it totally can be. When you do something you love, it's no longer about survival, the money or the hours. It's challenging yourself to be better than your best, much like the game of golf. If you've ever been an entrepreneur or played a round of golf, you know both can be equally addictive. I know I'm hooked.
