Running without stopping
Dedicated to all those who want to know why:
At the age of 16.5, I decided to leave school. My parents, as any normal parents, were not supportive of the idea.
I insisted that I am about to be independent and they were sure that I am leaving school just to go to the beach, "after all, how can a 16 years old kid know what he is going to do when he is grown up?".
When my parents saw that I couldn't be forced to go to school, they threatened me with the only thing that was meaningful for me – that they would prevent any financial support and if that was the way I choose then from that moment on I am the one responsible for my actions, all with the hope that after a while I will return on my knees and ask for their help.
When I decided to open my first business, I didn't have a dime, had no savings, I was only 17. I had the decisiveness and motivation to succeed and even more motivation to prove my parents that I can succeed despite their desire to prove me wrong in the step I've chosen to take.
I had crises and difficult times, I was in conditions in which I had no money for fuel for my car which I bought all by myself. I remember that I once refueled for 16.5 NIS (about 5$) in the city of Nes-Tziona in order to get to Tel-Aviv (about 20 kilometers) for a job I was paid for and I knew that I am going and I have money just for one way and that I will have to persuade the client to pay me something in advance so that I would be able to get back home, as otherwise I have no fuel for the ride back. I don't know if you have ever been in a situation like this, but you can say that it is a feeling of helplessness accompanied by anger.
I remember one particular moment that my girlfriend at the time who was doing her military service, asked me when we will be able to go out sometime and that she would be happy to go to see a movie, I pulled the car over and with tears in my eyes said to her that it hurts me that she asks and I would be more than happy to give to her but I barely have money to refuel the car, we both cried.
My vacations at the time have been to throw few matrasses in the van that I owned, to go to the beach and spend the night there with the door open, and the upgrade was when I bought a folding table with four chairs and a portable burner which I borrowed from my older brother.
For years I have been living in a race, an endless running forward, a sense of itching that never goes away.
I had to run and never stopped to ask myself why, I only knew one thing that I cannot stop running.
When I got married, my wife asked me when I will come home early and I said soon when the business would be in a better condition. When it was in a better condition I opened another business and when it was in a better condition and both businesses were working I opened another company, my wife kept asking once again when I will come home earlier and I didn’t understand why I must keep running.
My businesses were doing better and I decided to buy the college where I studied in order to continue and develop the consulting company I already had, my wife asked me what I needed it for, and I couldn't explain, I only knew that I need it and that it is a progress upward.
I kept running, we had a child born and another one and then another one and the years go by and I keep on running. Putting limits, returning home earlier, but in my mind I keep running all the time and don’t even know what I am running from or where I am trying to arrive at.
Two years ago, the running has brought me so far that I decided to open branches abroad and apparently I am running pretty well as it succeeded and even bug time, after opening the first branch in the Czech Republic.
I stopped!
I was happy, a sense of supreme happiness of a great achievement, I got on a plain back home, the pilot announced that we take off to Israel and that the flight takes three hours and 40 minutes and the race started.
Not the race to come back home, but the race in my head, which other branches can I open, how to reach other countries and what to do now in order to continue running, my head was working like crazy.
At that stage I already realized that something in me is different, it took me a little while longer to realize what is wrong about it, several weeks I was walking with the question why am I running, those who know me know that nothing takes time with me, time is something that does not exist for me, everything happens very fast while at the same time I help everyone, and one question I could not put to rest for several weeks, why am I running?...
One day it hit me, out of the blue sky, without prior notice, like a punch in the stomach that takes you a part to little pieces, it has been in front of me all that time I just couldn’t admit it, and suddenly I was willing to look in the mirror and admit that I am running to prove to my parents that I am nevertheless successful, and that they were wrong, this desire was the fuel and the spark, nothing else was needed, this was a motivation made of atoms and suddenly the big bang occurred. I didn’t have to run anymore to prove to my parents, I stopped and found out that I can pat myself on the back and that nobody has to validate who I am except for myself.
One revelation after another, one thought chases another and I arrived into my business, gathered all my staff and told them that I realized that the slogan of my business can no longer be "Our Knowledge – Your Results" which accompanied me since I established the Success Consulting Company, and that I decided to change direction and from now on the slogan of Success would be "Business with Pleasure". I had an exact explanation accompanying it, based on my realization regarding the running.
I realized that I want to work at a work of my choosing with people of my choosing. To choose whom to work with, who would be the employees in the company and who would be the clients I choose to work with, I realized that I do not owe anything to nobody, and that I can create my future in such a way that it will be fun getting up in the morning just for myself, in order to make myself and my environment happier.
It is perfectly fine to run and now I am certain that I will never stop running, only this time I take part in my own race and not running for somebody else.
We spend most of our hours at work, if you don’t like it and those working with us or those we work for, it would be a death sentence for your happiness.
Your body would still know how to get to work on time but who said that happiness should be left at home or in the children's room in your parents' home…
One who says Business OR Pleasure is a fool, I tell you that it is possible to have Business AND Pleasure and you are welcome to join.
Yours, and at your side,
In business and in pleasure
Elad Hadar, CEO
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