Here is some advice from a real Workaholic: Live a Balanced Life! — Especially take time to develop intimacy and trust with your spouse. And if you have children, spend quality time with them! You are the Potter shaping the rest of their lives. Too, invest in finding a few true friends. They are like marble pillars supporting your life.
In my younger days, I failed to do any of the advice that I have just given. And decades later, I live with regret. Just beneath my consciousness resides a deep sorrow that is released by memories and dreams.
The biggest challenge of my life was when I got married and had children. The responsibility of providing for them was daunting. I was disabled, handicapped, and my behavior was erratic due to previous trauma. – For the first few years it was impossible for me to find jobs and work enough hours to pay all our bills. – That is when out of desperation I started a cleaning business, Beach Cities Services.
That decision radically altered my life! I earned many times more in my first year than I had ever earned before. But it required a tremendous effort on my part. – First of all, I had no idea how to start a business. I was just making it up as I went. So, figuring it all out took hours of labor and effort.
There was so much work available. I worked day and night. I got apartments and houses ready to rent or sell during the day; and I cleaned business offices at night. – The money I was making relieved all of my previous crushing anxiety. I had a 3-bedroom house in a private community, a giant pool, three cars, and my child was enrolled in a private school. While just a short time ago, I needed disability checks and food stamps to make it through each month. – Making money was fun!
But I never got to know my wife and child. My wife left me. My daughter missed me. I had not spent much time with them. I thought I was being a loving husband and father by providing for their every material need. I was too busy building new businesses and obsessively trying to make sure that we never experienced humiliating poverty again. — It cost me my happiness and theirs’ too.
Unfortunately, I followed the same behavior pattern and results with my second wife and child too. — I wish I had lived a more balanced and reasonably ‘normal’ life. – I do now, and I am so much happier. – But the pain I caused those I loved and the lasting affect it has had on their lives burdens me everyday.
Don’t work too hard!
P.S. If you are struggling financially, or if you need a good, extra income, I have created a commercial cleaning business startup that teaches others how to develop a very profitable lifetime income. It is a Business in a Box. You are provided with everything you need to get going right away, including your equipment, training, certifications, incorporation, website, and marketing. Visit the American Janitorial Cleaning Association (AJCSA.org)