How to Walk Away from Your Business for a Lifestyle of Dreams

Did you know that it is possible for business owners to live out their dreams while profiting from their businesses?

Great entrepreneurs set up their companies so that they generate revenue even while they are asleep. A superior business leader knows how to use waking hours for dreaming, and sleeping hours for banking profits. While that might sound crazy, becoming rich and living a lifestyle that fulfills one’s lifelong dreams may also sound unrealistic – unless one has the passion and ambition of a true entrepreneur.

Succeeding beyond one’s wildest dreams requires a fresh way of looking at businesses and assuming the responsibility of ownership. You must also be willing to rebuild the systems and goals of your company so that it can sustain itself indefinitely.

Here are six expert tips – including some that tend to run against the grain of conventional wisdom – guaranteed to help one secure a shorter and more enjoyable path to personal and professional success.

Tip # 1: Spend more time dreaming, instead of doing

One of the inherent problems with most business models is that they are designed around the goal of constant growth and expansion. Little thought is given to shrinking the entrepreneur’s own job role and list of responsibilities.

The bigger the company becomes, the more control the owner has. That may be great for your ego, but it won’t enhance your quality of life. The only way to enjoy a lifestyle of freedom is to put oneself in a position of having less control – not more control – over daily functions.

Rather than seeking a larger office and more power over employees, the clever entrepreneur trains others as expert surrogates. He or she creates systems that liberate themselves, and others, from work. The truly successful entrepreneur promotes other people to leadership roles and inspires them to exercise more responsibility. That way, he or she can have more time to live the best life, dream more, and turn more dreams into reality.

Tip # 2: Learn to generalize, instead of specializing

The specialists of the world would commonly wind up working for others, not for themselves. They wind up working for a living, not living a lifestyle of their own design.

Generalists, on the other hand, think and act for themselves. They become leaders of others, and work to build wealth rather than make incremental monthly paychecks. For that reason, one of the lowest ranks in the military is that of “Specialist” – whereas the highest-ranking military officer is referred to as a General. The generalist would much rather leverage one percent of the efforts of 100 different people than 100 percent of the effort of just one individual.

Generalists are those who venture outside their own comfort zone. They turn to others for guidance, insight, and education. They aren’t afraid to take risks and do things differently, because they don’t know any other way of running the business.

They also avoid the emotional pitfall of becoming too attached and engrossed in a specialized business. When the opportunity presents itself, they can readily hand over the reins to someone else. They can franchise the business without trying to control every facet of it. Even better, they can sell the businesses they have created and make additional profits, before investing again to launch another enterprise in a different market sector or industry.

They become essentially recession-proof thanks to their agility, flexibility, and diversity – traits that specialist entrepreneurs and businesses are not endowed with, because they lack the leadership characteristics that distinguish followers from Generals.

Tip # 3: Strive to become dispensable

Ultimately, the goal is not to run a successful business, but to own a successful business. Now don’t get us wrong: hands-on leadership and business building is necessary. Nobody creates the perfect organization without hard work and an investment of dedicated time and energy. But by setting the bar higher – not just shooting for profits, but for passive income – an entrepreneur can reap superior rewards.

Passive income is money made by putting investments to work on your behalf. Entrepreneurs should actively and passionately pursue passive income. Then they can walk away from their businesses and live the kind of thrilling and fulfilling lifestyle that others – who work to remain inside their organizations and on the premises of their stores and offices – can usually never find the time to experience.

Tip # 4: Create smarter systems

For a company to run well while the owner is away, it is important to have comprehensive business systems in place. The first step in creating a self-sustaining system is to clearly delineate job descriptions and roles, then cross-train employees as necessary so that they can pitch in and take over another person’s routines if required to do so.

Invest in technology, and ensure that employees have the training they need to use it effectively and efficiently. Knowledge is power, and arming your employees with the knowledge to run your business is an investment that will pay off in the future. Whether they’re continuing education workshops, seminars, or training sessions, they are not only beneficial to employees, but they can also be used as inspiring incentives.

Systems that are self-sustaining can be the biggest asset of a company because they increase production while decreasing labor intensity. For the owner, that means growth of revenues and profits and a diminished need to be on the premises to oversee and manage routine operations.

Tip # 5: Cultivate visionary teamwork

Through teamwork – and only through teamwork – can the people in a business work at their maximum potential. That results directly from something called synergy. The principle of synergy is based on the idea that the sum of all of the parts is greater than those individual parts. A team can, in other words, accomplish much more than the individuals who make up that team might be able to achieve on their own.

The more the teamwork produces results, the less the leader of the team needs to be involved in the field of play. At first the business owner might be a star player, quarterback, and team captain. Eventually – through leadership – the owner rises to the level of coach, consultant, and expert manager.

Finally the owner reaches the level of real ownership. Those who own teams don’t work the sidelines and don’t step onto the field; they watch from a distance and enjoy the results of successful teamwork. The winning team generates profits that the owner realizes as passive income.

Tip # 6: Appoint someone else the president

Once the pieces are in place, the stage is set, and momentum is underway, the time comes for the entrepreneur to step away and put somebody else in charge. This plan is ideally hatched back when the business is first designed, so that capable and trustworthy people have already been schooled and prepared to take the helm. With others handling management and administration, an entrepreneur can begin to chart his or her new life.

He or she now has a profitable business, a passive income and someone else to tend the store for them. It is now possible to begin investing in other profit centers. Because one has more than enough money to live on, each time a new investment bears fruit, it simply adds to the stockpile of cash, creative energy, and visionary capital.