Sometimes you have to be single to be successful

My time is sparse, so that means a 20 minute shower is the only luxury in my day. My make-up takes 5 minutes, hair another 5, and picking my clothes for the day - is a few tick tocks of the clock. I then make my bed and literally wake up the dog, take her for a quick walk, grab a coffee and am in the office before 7am.

The minute I walk in the office, I check my emails which takes the next few hours. Usually I write a blog, but of late, there has been no time. A short interception at 8am with an internal meeting with our Accountant, is followed by more emails. At 9am, I open my office door so employees can ask questions or run things by me if they like, otherwise I walk the floor saying hi to everyone and asking if there is anything they need.

The rest of the day is a combination of meetings, emails, speaking engagements, consultancy, mentoring and so on.

On top of that, I am building a house - so you can just imagine what that entails.

All of which leads me to realise that 'Sometimes being single makes you more successful'. I don't have a minute to spare before I lay my head down to sleep at night and my routine runs 7 days per week. This cannot last forever, but right now it is setting me up for more success in my career and I don't feel as though it would be possible to achieve the same amount of success that is within my grasp had I a full-time partner who lived in the same country as myself.

Furthermore, as a semi-single entrepreneur I find;

• I can accept any invitation and that often means expanding my network, thus giving me more connections for business ventures that I participate in
• I don't spend time worrying about how I look because there is no-one judging me, or no self reflection whereby I feel I have to be 'dolled' up
• My time, is my time and if I want to spend it working 24/7 the last thing I want is for someone to be nagging me about how much I work and providing additional pressure
• When the pressure cookers on - the last thing I need to be doing is being considerate to another human being, so going home and having baked beans out of a tin may be at times all I can muster before falling in a heap on my bed, sprawled out like a starfish
• There's no making coffee for someone else, no picking up after another and no having to be somewhere where I don't want to be
• Staying up all night to write a marketing strategy even though it may not be due for weeks - just because... becomes a choice
• I can hop on my cell phone whenever I want, read as many books about the same topic without someone saying "that I need a life", and fall asleep at 7pm due to exhaustion without another person giving me grief.

Being an entrepreneur is incredibly exciting and I love every opportunity that comes my way. I am focused beyond what many would consider humanly possible and fit more into my day than most. But I am a realist and for me, having someone full-time in my life would hinder what is possible on the career front. Just sayin'.