Try it

I know that many of you will read this article about how to avoid being a workaholic and laugh at its suggestions. You’ll say you can’t do these things and/or that if you did your business would suffer.

I beg you, beg you, not to give in to your current lifestyle and associated thinking, but instead to give this the attention it deserves.

I know it doesn’t feel logical that to tune out and work less is to do the best thing for your business, but it is. You need to do these things. You need to take time off and turn things off and get out and connect with loved ones, etc., etc.

You are burned out. Even if you don’t think so, you almost assuredly are.

And even if you might not be, even if you are fresh as the proverbial daisy, being on-call 24/7 makes you look too available.

I recently heard that Irving “Swifty” Lazar, the agent of agents, once said that if he called a counterpart on a potential deal, after hours (like on a Saturday or in the evening), and the counterpart took the call, he knew he had ’em. It meant, to “Swifty” that the counterpart was desperate and he could use that to his advantage.

I love that. I think he was totally right. It is one thing to be available and to work with your clients (especially if you have a project and are in production); it is another thing to act like the guy holding his wife’s purse while she shops.

You’re better than that. Because you are, you owe it to yourself and to your business to try some (all!) of the suggestions in that article. Best of all, by disconnecting and giving yourself your life back, you will find that you are more creative. And in today’s photo/creative business world, it is your creativity that will make you successful.