6 Things Successful People Sacrifice For Their Success

Everyone wants to succeed in life, but it usually does not come easily. Lots of time, sacrifices need to made in exchange for success. The famous quote “No Pain No Gain” which means you can’t get anything without paying for it. Below are some essential things that company owners and CEOs have sacrificed to get to where they are today.

1. Money

Almost all businesses require some capital at first. Alloting most income for the sake of starting up a business venture can be common, but what the CEO of Crimcheck and his wife did was a bit further than that. They decided to rent their property, lived in their relative’s basement for the sake of the newly established venture and invested 90% of their income into the growing business.

The CEO of Leadfeeder, Pekka Koskinen and the CEO of Style Coalition, Yuli Ziv had similar experiences. Koskinen had to tighten his belt and work double hours to pay the salary of his first employee and Yuli Ziv had to use her every penny she had saved up from her previous job to give her dream venture a chance to survive.

2. Time

Everyone has 24 hours per day. It is up to us how to use the time we have. Gary Nealon chose to sacrifice his sleeping hours to build his company, Nealon Solutions and the Rox Group, while working full-time in the sales department. Such sleep deprived situation is not so different from what Gary Vaynerchuck, the CEO of VaynerMedia went through. He said that handling a start-up company requires work dedication of 18 hours a day during at least the first year. Alec Lynch, the CEO and founder of DesignCrown, has been and is still in such time limited situation. With at least $3 million capital firm, he still finds it hard to spare some time for holidays or simply hanging out with friends.

In addition to that, even a different kind of success (the one which is not related to business and money) requests time sacrifice. For parents, seeing their kids learn an important life lesson from them and reach their dreams can be considered personal success. For those who are generous and kind-hearted, helping others can bring the feeling of success. The theory of these other kinds of successes has been proven by the president of Central Poker, Joe Kakaty.

Joe had always wanted to make his philanthropic goals come true so he said yes when asked to raise funds for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Time, most of which has always been dedicated to his job, must be sacrificed for the charity. Knowing that if he only keeps saying ‘I will do some charity work someday’, it may never come true, he decided to take some time off work and teach his kids that ‘someday is today’. What is truly rewarding for him was that he did manage to attain his charity goals and when the kids made a song titled ‘Someday is Today’ and he could see the their happy faces when the number of viewers on both YouTube  and Facebook reached more than 650,000.

3. Togetherness

This may be the hardest kind of sacrifice, especially for romantic couples: living away from beloved ones to set up a business. The CEO of Fairchild Group, John Hanna had to live separately from his wife and son for a year. During the period, he lived with his mother, while his wife and son lived at her sister’s. This separation arrangement was, of course, on behalf of the newly built business.

4. Pride

When running her own company, The Corcoran Group, Barbara Corcoran was faced with a reality that she had to work for another company in order to ensure the survival of her business. Back then when interest rate was at 18%, she had to pay $400.000 debt and 400 agents. She had no choice, but to swallow her ego and work a day job to earn the money she needed.

5. Body fitness

Zach Johnson, the CEO of Atmail, claims that work has cost him several hours of commuting and sitting in the office all day. Also, he says that he was not able to pay any attention to diet and eating habits. Thus, his body fitness suffered. Luckily, now there is a gym nearby and he can at least spend 20 minutes exercising there.

6. Hobby

While most need to sacrifice at least one or two things to establish and run their businesses, some are more than lucky to have all the support they need. Yet, for those well-equipped, there is still at least one thing to sacrifice: hobby. The owner of Whatever It Takes Network, Grant Cardone fancied playing golf three times per week, but starting 2008 he lived by this new philosophy that ‘not having fun today for freedom tomorrow is okay’. He even said that it is okay if his golf game and social life are not as good as they used to be. He has indeed put work on top of his hobby.

If you want to be successful and achieve what you really want in life, you’ll have to make sacrifices. But when you reach the end of that mountain, you’ll be so very glad that you never gave up the journey.