Releasing Entrepreneurs’ Disease

I’ve really been an entrepreneur all of my life. It started when I gave flute lessons to younger folks when I was in high school. Then I worked various jobs during graduate school, usually teaching privately or running programs that somebody else funded.

In 1980 I was hired to create an international institute from the ground up. In the four years that I ran it we served over 700 international students and business execs, and I pretty much did everything myself at first – strategic planning, market research, program marketing, PR development, curriculum design, hiring & firing, student recruiting, dealing with embassies and international agencies, student & program housing, faculty development, budget control, immigration matters, need I go on??  After a year or so I DID hire an Assistant Director and was able to delegate many tasks. To my knowledge my old program, The English Language and Multicultural Institute, is still in existence, and after 20+ years it still was being run by people that I initially hired!!  I enjoyed all that I learned in the process of those four years, and I will also admit that I suffered a bit from “Entrepreneurs’ Disease”.

Often when somebody creates a new product or founds their own business it is like birthing a new brainchild. There is a sense of ownership, responsibility, possessiveness, over-protectiveness, and the entrepreneur often tends to hover like a parent around this entity. In the hundreds of seminars I have offered to entrepreneurs over the years I always mention the malady of what I have labeled “Entrepreneurs’ Disease”. The symptoms of this sickness include inability to delegate, over-protectiveness, and over-all strong control issues where the business is concerned.

In 1985 I started my consulting/training/coaching firm, which evolved into The Ariela Group of Wholistic Services. It has at times been a struggle for me to keep from being stricken by Entrepreneurs’ Disease. When I first opened the business I did EVERYTHING myself. After awhile I aligned with associates who could complement what I offered. Then I hired the necessary support staff such as my CPA, web designer, computer guru, answering service, and most recently, my Virtual Assistant. It feels SO FREEING to have intelligent colleagues working on MY TEAM with whom I can move forward more easily and quickly, and who definitely help me to accomplish more in a shorter period of time!!

I LOVE being able to delegate tasks that I don’t really have passion for doing!!  And, it is so exciting to have team members who take the initiative and often offer even more than I ask for!!  I am blessed… and grateful!!