As I lay in bed last night I began to really feel lonely. It was a Friday night and I had slaved away until midnight, writing articles, building a friends website, and updating my outdated portfolio. As I tried to figure out why I was feeling this deep loneliness, I realized that my social life over the past 12 months has completely gone down the drain. I did after all end both of my last relationships because I was too busy and felt as though I needed to focus more on business and less on women. It is this fact that lead me to the conclusion that I as an entrepreneur embrace loneliness on a deep level. For example I would rather be writing a blog post or doing research on a startup idea than drinking in the basement with my roommates and friends. It is a weird concept for me to even grasp let alone anyone outside of my situation. I guess I just need to face the fact that choosing to be an entrepreneur means embracing loneliness.
So this brings me to my question for you. Do you as an entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur, ever feel lonely because of the demanding lifestyle that you lead?
Please feel free to answer in the comments below.
UPDATE:
Here is an awesome list from http://idea2inception.com of things for entrepreneurs to do to battle loneliness.
1. Don’t be a businessman with everyone. For instance, wear the boyfriend (girlfriend) hat when you’re with your girlfriend or wife (boyfriend or husband). With friends, be a friend first and then a businessman. Remember they befriended you and not what you do. Don’t talk only about your business while on dinners, and parties…talk about them too; ask them how have they been, or what’s going on in their lives. Not to say that you shouldn’t talk about your business or keep secrets but understand and respect the fact that not everyone is interested in your business, plus they may not be as excited or share the same vision as you do. The key is, if you don’t talk about it, they will be curious and ask you and then you’ll have the opportunity to talk about your business.
2. Events, Happy Hours, Book Clubs, Professional Associations Alumni Clubs and Sports Activities are great ways to meet more people, some might turn out business contacts, some will become good friends, some just Tennis buddies, and some you’ll never see again…
3. Build networks, join online networking sites like Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and the likes to make new friends who you wouldn’t have befriended otherwise. Call on these people for advice and opinions. Reciprocate, pay it forward, and build relationships with them.
4. Utilize technology to stay in touch. In the day and age of cell phone, email, instant messengers, Text/SMS, Skype, Vonage and many more FREE communication tools you shouldn’t have any excuses left for not staying in touch. Sending a quick email just to say Hi, mentioning what you’re working on and asking other’s what are they working on and if you can help in anyway, goes a very long way.
5. Take a break, go walk around the block, smile, say Hi to people around. Remember, to make friends, you’ve to be friendly first.
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