创业失去激情？5招轻松解决

无论你是谁，在职业生涯中都会碰到缺乏动力，斗志消沉的时候。然而，缺乏动力并不意味着是时候认输了。实际上，只要在日常生活中做一些简单而有效的改变，就能让你重拾活力。

1、在工作上投入时间，但不要过分投入

在职业生涯的早期，我成立的一家公司很快就让我不堪重负。我们每周工作7天，每天工作21小时。这很疯狂，很让人兴奋，但6个月后，我到了产生幻觉的边缘。

即便是最基本的行政事务看起来都是灾难性的。再这样继续下去，要么我们的公司会垮掉，要么我们的团队会解散。于是我们停工5天，在此期间，除了最重要的沟通外，我们取消了其他一切交流。这让整个团队保持了一定距离，并获得了不一样的视角，最终取得了不可思议的效果。有时候你需要调整那些失衡的事情。只要你创造了这样的空间，就能重新燃起你做一番事业的热情。

你有可能找不到工作的状态，陷入日常琐事的困境中。如果经营一家公司变得像电影《土拨鼠日》（Groundhog Day）那样每天重复的生活，那么你是时候后退一步，花点时间干些其他的事情了，这样你才能延续你的创业激情。

花点时间改善公司的策略，精简团队，思考新想法，着眼于公司的未来，这可以帮助你重新获得引领公司更上一层楼的动力。

2、把目标作为一切工作的中心

公司领袖需要真正理解他们创业的目标或理由。一旦你找到了公司存在的真正理由，一切事情就都应当以它为核心。它应该成为你确定优先实现和日常决策的框架。

在Xero，我们的目标是帮助小企业发展。小企业贡献了全球大部分GDP，也是就业岗位的最大来源。帮助小企业提高效率，茁壮成长，能让整体经济受益。而如果我们能做好自己的工作，就能帮助全球小企业飞速成长。帮助我们的员工理解这一点，完全改变了我们确定优先事项和执行战略的方式。

3、直面客户——他们是激情的最佳来源

如果你缺乏激情，或是不清楚你的目标是什么，那么你首先要做的事就是接触客户。通过了解客户对你的产品或服务的体验，你可以学到很多东西。如果是我的话，我会出门与会计谈一谈，与小公司的老板聊聊，或是见见我们的新合作伙伴。

每个人对我们的小企业平台都有不同的体验，所以重要的是理解它怎样让生活更简单，到底是什么让他们快乐，并找出我们可以改进的地方。

4、把次要工作交给机器或者外包出去

扔掉一切负担。削减那些不重要的琐事，能给你留出宝贵的时间，做你喜欢做的事情。

对许多小公司的老板而言，把他们拖垮的往往是财务和管理方面的事务。列出优秀的档案管理员和会计师能提供的帮助，使用虚拟助手，你就可以从无聊的琐事中解脱出来，去做那些你喜欢做的事情。

5、学会拒绝

每天练习说不。拒绝做一些事情，会带来惊人的解脱效果。但这说起来容易做起来难。

曾经有一个大客户委任了一个新领导与我新成立不久的公司合作。这个领导不停地麻烦我们的员工，给非关键性的工作设立不切实际的目标。尽管他们给我们带来了不错的收入，但团队士气却在下降。

我们做出了艰难的决定，拒绝与这家客户继续合作。这冒了巨大的商业风险，我们接下来花了6个月的时间来弥补收入的落差。拒绝那些与你的目标相悖的事情——在以上案例中，我们的目标是打造茁壮成长的团队——会很困难，但最后会证明这是对团队最好的投资。

严格控制你的工作时间，坚持你的原则，专注你的目标，你就会发现拒绝那些不太适合的机会要容易许多，你的公司也会从中受益。

本文作者Andy Lark是Xero公司首席营销官。

译者：严匡正

审校：任文科

No matter who you are, there are points in your career when it can be difficult to stay motivated and inspired. However, a shortage of motivation doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time to throw in the towel. Rather, making a few simple—but powerful—changes to your day to day could be just what you need to get your mojo back.

Spend time “on” the business instead of “in” the business

Early on in my career, one of the businesses I founded quickly became very overwhelming. We were working 21-hour days seven days a week. It was crazy and exciting, but six months in, it was borderline hallucinogenic.

Even the most rudimentary admin issues felt catastrophic. Continuing would have either broken the business or broken us as a team. We stopped working for five days, banning all but the most critical of communications. It allowed the team to get some distance and perspective, and the effect was incredible. Sometimes you’ve got to unbalance to rebalance. As soon as you create that space, you can renew your passion for the purpose of the business.

Chances are you didn’t get into your line of work to get caught in the perils of the daily grind. If running a business is starting to feel like Groundhog Day, it’s time to take a step back and spend some time out of the operation so you can work on the business.

Taking the time to refine your business’s strategy, streamlining teams, coming up with new ideas, and working on your company’s future can help restore your drive to lead the company to the next level.

Put purpose at the center of everything

Business leaders need to really understand their purpose or reason for being in business. Once you’ve got a grasp on your business’s true reason for existence, it needs to be at the center of everything you do. It should become the framework that guides your priorities and daily decisions.

At Xero, our purpose is to help small businesses thrive. Around the world, small businesses combine to account for the majority of GDP contributions and are the largest source of employment. By helping small businesses operate more efficiently and grow, entire economies benefit. And if we do our job properly, we help small businesses all around the world. Helping our employees understand that completely changes what we prioritize and how we execute our strategy.

Get in front of customers—they are the greatest source of inspiration

If you’re ever short on inspiration or unclear of what your purpose is, the first thing you should do is get in touch with your customers. You can learn so much from their experiences with your product or service. For me, it’s getting out and talking to accountants, chatting to small business owners, and meeting with our add-on partners.

Each has a different experience with our small-business platform, so it’s important to understand how it makes their lives easier, figure out what delights them, and uncover the areas that we can improve on.

Automate or outsource all tasks that don’t inspire

Trim all that taxes. Axing mundane tasks that don’t inspire gives you back precious time, helping to make room for the things that you enjoy doing.

For many small business owners, it’s the financial and administration sides of the business that weighs them down. By enlisting the help of a great bookkeeper or accountant and using a virtual assistant service, you can free yourself from the boring stuff and get back to doing the parts that you love.

Learn how to say no

Practice saying no every single day. Saying no to some tasks is an incredibly liberating feeling. It may sound simple, but it can be a tough strategy to execute on.

I once had a major customer who appointed a new leader to work with my young agency. This individual took great sport in harassing employees and setting unrealistic goals for non-critical work. And while billings were great, morale was tanking.

We made the tough decision to say no to working with this client. It was a massive business risk and we spent the next six months working on filling the revenue gap. Saying no when things aren’t aligning with your purpose—in this case, ours was building teams that thrived—will be hard, but it could end up being the best investment for your team.

By being strict with your time, sticking to your principles, and focusing on your purpose, you’ll find saying no to opportunities that don’t align much easier, and your business will benefit from it.