Tweet

Lesson #5: Separate Business from Personal

Article Overview: Although Hughes liked to put his personal touch on every project he worked on, he was also able to recognize the difference between business and personal. At times a ruthless businessman, Hughes would take whatever action he deemed necessary to achieve his goals.

Lesson #5: Separate Business from Personal

Although Hughes liked to put his personal touch on every project he worked on, he was also able to recognize the difference between business and personal. At times a ruthless businessman, Hughes would take whatever action he deemed necessary to achieve his goals.

In The Aviator (2004), a film that depicts the rise and fall of Hughes’ career, the reality of the often-harsh business decisions that Hughes made was portrayed. When a colleague questions Hughes’ choice to fire a sizeable number of his employees, Hughes is quoted as saying, “I know what you’re going to tell me. You’re going to tell me, probably, that you know someone who has cancer or someone who just got married or just had a baby, and that you can’t do that to those people…a corporation has no soul. I can’t know about those things and be a corporation.”

While for many entrepreneurs, their personal and business lives are so intertwined that it is difficult to make a distinction, it is necessary to recognize that you are in fact operating in two distinct worlds. A savvy businessman, Hughes understood that in the world of business and fierce competition, it was often necessary to be ruthless.

On the flip side, Hughes demonstrated that the challenges you may face in your personal life do not have to be a determinant of your professional success. Hughes’ personal life was one fraught with challenges, but he did not let that stand in his way.

Faced with the reality of being an orphan at age 19, Hughes chose not to succumb to despair but to instead use the wealth his family had left him to pursue his dreams. He recognized that tragedy in his personal life did not have to stand in the way of professional success.

Hughes also found it extremely difficult to have a stable relationship with a woman due to his womanizing father as well as the unusually close relationship he had with his mother. Hughes had bounced back and forth between numerous male and female partners in Hollywood, never settling on one person. Kathryn Grayson, just one of his many partners, said that Hughes seemed to be “the loneliest man in the world.” But, Hughes did not let the frustration and loneliness he might have been experiencing in his personal life hinder his professional pursuits in any way.

It was only in his later life that Hughes finally succumbed to the ravages of OCD and mental illness. But, even as his personal life and mental health began to deteriorate, he continued to pursue his business interests, taking on contracts with the CIA, investing in casinos and hotels throughout Las Vegas and acquiring 25,000 acres of property.

Hughes’ passion might have moved away from film and aviation and into the real estate market, but the passion was nonetheless as strong as ever. Personal challenges were not going to obstruct Hughes from continuing to pursue his passions. He recognized the difference between the business and personal realms and rarely let one affect the other.

Related Articles
  Should I use personal credit to fund my business?
  Who Is Your Proud Family?
  WEALTH CREATION PRICIPLES
  Leadership Lessons Heard
  To Create A Personal Development Plan?

Article Tags: aviator, business decisions, business lives, colleague, despair, determinant, distinct worlds, distinction, female partners, flip side, nev, orphan, personal life, personal touch, professional success, rise and fall, savvy businessman, sizeable number, stable relationship, tragedy



Related Forum Posts
Re: Twitter vs Facebook - I know this is a naive question but i'm really not sure: What do you tweet ? Business? promote your business? Personal? Are there things you can't do? ALSO :Is there a rule book? Is there a success formula using twitter?
Re: New Year - New Resolutions? - Business goal: To not procrastinate and to take action on my plans. Personal goal: To be more physically active as sitting on the computer all day isn't good for you.
Dan Kennedy Marketing Methods - We haven't sent out the physical letter yet as the person owning the list wanted to make modifications to the letter that we knew would work well but the List owner had a point - it didn't reflect her personality so her clients would know it didn't come from her. Lesson learned for me. We're back to the drawing board with the list owner more involved in the development of the letter and emails. I should have known better being a Business Analyst in my day job that you never leave the end-user out. So Evan we haven't had the opportunity to test any of it yet but it's been a fun process for me to stand back and look at.
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: Twitter vs Facebook - [quote="barrysarner":ejpeof1u]I know this is a naive question but i'm really not sure: What do you tweet ? Business? promote your business? Personal? Are there things you can't do? ALSO :Is there a rule book? Is there a success formula using twitter?[/quote:ejpeof1u] I do a mixture of business tips, personal updates, success quotes, retweets, questions, promoting, etc... It just depends on what's on my mind right then. I don't think there's anything you can't do. I've seen everything on there. But I suppose there probably are some rules. Spamming is obviously frowned upon.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Providing Feedback

How To Calculate A Minimum Fee For Your Services

Do You Deserve To Be Happy and Successful?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.