Last week I went to the Small Business Forum in Toronto and I had the opportunity to listen to W.Brett Wilson be interviewed. W.Brett is one of the investors on CBC’s Dragon’s Den which also happens to be one of my favorite shows.

Brett had a lot of great advice to those who are building their business. He’s also made a lot of money in business, more money than I’ll probably ever dream of making.

However, it seems it came at a high cost.

W.Brett spoke about being a Workaholic and how he’d work from 6am in the morning until 8,9,10pm at night. He said he’d also go weeks without seeing his family because of it.

Virtual Assistants and Workaholism

Many of the virtual assistants I speak to are also working way too many hours per day. I know it’s not uncommon for some of us who work at home to be working 10, 12, 16+ hour days.

I also know it’s possible to work 4 or 5 hour days and still have a business that is profitable AND even growing. I know many people who are doing it right now.

When I decided that I was working way too hard and too many long hours at my virtual assistance business I had to take a huge step back. I took a huge pay cut by stopping a lot of my services. I also made the decision that I would only work on the majority of projects where I was investing my time, not spending it.

My idea of investing time:

- writing information products I can sell over and over
- writing affiliate marketing articles that will make me money over and over
- submitting articles to directories that will bring me traffic over and over
- doing search engine optimization that will bring me traffic over and over
- you get the picture…

My idea of spending time:

- client work
- excessive networking
- excessive social media marketing

Something else W.Brett mentioned during his talk was getting treatment for being a Workaholic. I’d never heard of this before so I decided to do a little research and actually found the site Workaholics-Anonymous.

On the Workaholics-Anonymous site there is a quiz you can take to determine if you are a workaholic. If you answer YES to any THREE of these questions you might be a Workaholic:

Twenty Questions: How Do I Know If I’m A Workaholic?

1. Do you get more excited about your work than about family or anything else?
2. Are there times when you can charge through your work and other times when you can’t?
3. Do you take work with you to bed? On weekends? On vacation?
4. Is work the activity you like to do best and talk about most?
5. Do you work more than 40 hours a week?
6. Do you turn your hobbies into money-making ventures?
7. Do you take complete responsibility for the outcome of your work efforts?
8. Have your family or friends given up expecting you on time?
9. Do you take on extra work because you are concerned that it won’t otherwise get done?
10. Do you underestimate how long a project will take and then rush to complete it?
11. Do you believe that it is okay to work long hours if you love what you are doing?
12. Do you get impatient with people who have other priorities besides work?
13. Are you afraid that if you don’t work hard you will lose your job or be a failure?
14. Is the future a constant worry for you even when things are going very well?
15. Do you do things energetically and competitively including play?
16. Do you get irritated when people ask you to stop doing your work in order to do something else?
17. Have your long hours hurt your family or other relationships?
18. Do you think about your work while driving, falling asleep or when others are talking?
19. Do you work or read during meals?
20. Do you believe that more money will solve the other problems in your life?

source: Workaholics Anonymous

I think it’s really hard to admit that being a Workaholic is NOT a good thing. I mean, how many people have you heard proudly proclaim “Oh yea, I’m a Workaholic!”.

What they don’t tell you is their family is slowing growing to resent them, their kids wonder why work is more important than love and they are slowly morphing into someone they wouldn’t have recognized pre-workaholism.

I’m not trying to preach at you here, not at all. I’ve got more than three yeses from that checklist above but I’m ‘working’ on it. I know I waste a lot of time, precious time I could spend with my son, or my boyfriend, or my family and I will constantly strive to do better.

That’s all we can do, right?

How do you feel about workaholism? Has it affected your family? I know this is serious stuff and I would be really grateful if you had any comments or insights to share.

p.s. This is no joke! Workaholism can break up families, cause depression, poor health and create a huge amount of stress in your life. If you think you might be a workaholic, check out that link to Workaholics Anonymous and get some help. You’ll be glad you did!