For every e-mail that gets sent, there's an inbox that probably can't handle yet another mail.

Cue the hipster trying to explain this "phenomenon": "I just get so much mail; I really can't answer all of them.", "So sorry if I missed your mail, but I get hundreds each day and yours probably fell through the cracks." or "E-mail overload is a real problem."

Duh.

See, I get it: we're all struggling to answer all of our e-mails since every Tom, Dick & Harry started sending an e-mail about everything a couple of years back. And now most Tom's, Dick's and Harry's have smartphones too (just so they look cool, not because they necessarily fully grasp the device), so they're sending you mail while on the pooper. I get it.

I also know that answering e-mail - especially lengthy one's - isn't the most pleasurable experience, nor do you feel like you've accomplished anything after you're done. I also absolutely hate waking up to an inbox with 30 unread mails, which means I've developed a bad habit of answering a couple of them on my iPhone, in the bed before I doze off to sleep. Bad habit. Yuck. But we do what we have to do.

The best part is that the more e-mails you manage to respond to, the more you are likely to receive back. Exponentially. Talk about a catch-22.

Here's the MASSIVE BUT though: None of these makes it okay for us to start ignore e-mails.

If I sent you an e-mail, I most probably did so because I would really appreciate a response (of any kind). Or maybe I really look up to you, admire your work and wanted to connect about something that might just be important to me. I also sent you the mail knowing that you are busy (just as I am), that it might take a couple of days for you to respond (which I'm okay about) and I tried to keep the e-mail as short as possible in respecting your time. If you don't respond, I don't know whether you got my mail, whether it perhaps went to spam or whether you didn't regard me important enough to warrant a response.

I'm nowhere near perfect when it comes to answering my own mail, but I try really, really hard to answer every single e-mail that pops up in my inbox. I'm slightly obsessive compulsive when it comes to keeping my inbox clean, I don't use any computer process that will "prioritize" my mail for me (just another lame excuse not to answer e-mails from senders outside of my network) and I realize that this isn't the most productive decision I've ever mind. But common courtesy is still a value that I regard highly.

So to everyone moaning about not having enough time, you can join the rest of us in that boat. We can also seriously stop playing the "my inbox is bigger than yours"-game, since that doesn't get the e-mail answered either. We all agree that the massive amounts of e-mail that gets sent is a real problem, but we're not solving it by selectively ignoring some of those e-mails.

You're not doing anything wrong when you're not answering the mail you receive. Compare it having your own home; if there's a knock at the door, it's your choice to open it or pretend like you're not there.

I for one - and I'm sure I'm not alone - have much more respect for those people that takes the 2 minutes to reply to my mail.

I’ve been listening to many business people of late and I’m astounded that there is this obsession to great massive businesses that are worth multiple billion dollars.

I don’t know about you, but even though I’m a firm believer in capitalism, as well as being a very ambitious individual; I harbour no dream to build a bloated business that requires me to do more chaos management than strategizing (and all the other fun stuff related to running your own business).

Taylor Davdison sums this up beautifully:

But should the goal really be bigger businesses? Are bigger businesses necessarily better businesses? Shouldn’t the goal be better businesses? And where are the metrics to measure that?

I’d also like to add that businesses should be about solving problems, having fun & being passionate about the things you do. If it’s not all that, it doesn’t matter how big your company is or even less or much it is worth.

First off: I’m a massive believer in growing one’s own ideas and it would thus be a very hard decision for me to ever even consider selling one of my companies. We had concrete interest in WooThemes in the past for example, but to this day we have decided that we’d rather continue to grow our own baby, instead of selling.

This article on TechCrunch goes on to explain why FourSquare should not be selling out to Yahoo. I however have an unique take on this…

1. At a valuation of $80m+, I sell my startup today; especially one that is reliant on technology. Whilst you are relevant & trendy today, this may not be the case tomorrow; so I’d rather sell for a ridiculous amount of money now and start up something new.
2. A valuation of $80m+ is ridiculous to say the least. FourSquare isn’t even making any money; so wonder what that valuation is based on? Potential? Forecasts? Pfff…
3. The author has gotten his point of having an entrepreneurial spirit spot on by saying “But there’s a reason why you became an entrepreneur and didn’t just stay a mid level developer grunt at a variety of large organizations. You have the fire to change the world. So go do it.”. Fact of the matter is, that approach is always a risky one and sometimes you need to take some money off the table and out of the equation (i.e. looking after one’s longer term needs).
4. Personally I’d rather sell completely than have to take VC funding and answer to a bunch of suits. But that’s probably just me.

I will always be an entrepreneur at hard and even at silly valuations, I will be reluctant to sell any business I’m currently involved with or may be involved with going forward. Reality however is that even entrepreneurs need to be realistic at times; so selling your startup should always be an option.

Having that as an option, doesn’t mean you are selling out, but it does mean you are considering every possibility and every opportunity. In my mind, that is more entrepreneurial than just ignoring a possible sale because you are afraid of selling out.

In recent months - especially since the beginning of the year - I’ve found that the more I align my passions & the things that generally makes me happy in my life, the more I tend to be productive, inspired, motivated & just content. Now this probably seems obvious & trivial, but I’ve learned (about myself at least) that there’s a little bit of a different angle to this if you look closely.

Before I get into it, I need to mention that a lot of this thinking and the tweaking & tinkering in my life is a result of the idealistic goals that I’ve set myself for this year. So on a regular basis, I’ve been referring back to those goals and making sure that I’m making appropriate progress in achieving my aims.

One of the changes that I wanted to implement in my life, was a healthier & more active lifestyle, which means beyond changing to a healthier diet, I’m also training to run a half marathon in April. On most days I would thus go for a 5 - 8km run in the afternoon in preparation for the race. But to get back to how this influences my overall “life happiness” (beyond the obvious result of feeling healthier & more fit than I have ever felt), I now go running for two possible reasons:

1. If I had a great day at the office, my afternoon run is a perfect way to almost celebrate that day; and
2. If I had a shitty day up until that point, the run is a great way to clear my head and just feel refreshed by removing myself from that shittiness.

Maybe I’m splitting hairs here, but even though I thus go running for two very different reasons, it has exactly the same result: I feel much better afterwards. In a similar vein, when I’ve had a great day I get to celebrate it with Jeanne (with whom I got engaged last Friday), but when it hasn’t been the best of days, I can talk to her about it, which allows me to get it off my chest / mind (family & friends can do exactly the same thing).

What I’m trying to say here, is that the different spheres of our lives all has an influence on each other; so if you’re not happy at home, you’re more than likely not gonna be happy at work. And if you’re being challenged & stimulated at work, you’re more likely to feel refreshed & happy when socializing with friends & family or pursuing personal hobbies.

So there’s most definitely a case for making sure that all of these things are aligned. Consider that the energy (and good vibes) generated in one sphere automatically gets transferred to the next sphere as you move between the different spaces in your life; to an extent it should thus be obvious that you need to setup those spheres in such a way as to where they can fuel each other.

Most entrepreneurs seem to be keen to develop & establish their brands as umbrella’s for a whole business empire, in that they grow the company both horizontally & vertically. Whilst this may not be on every startup’s radar, the more established a business becomes, the bigger the need seems to be for diversification & increased sustainability (whilst you wouldn’t be too surprised if you found that every second entrepreneur was a ruthless, greedy business person).

A great example of what I consider to be an “empire” within the online spaces that I move is Envato. Not being content with only having one content-generating website or one marketplace, I think Collis & co should be lauded for really building a massive business with different, yet related, arms & vehicles.

So whilst this is all great, here’s a bit of a proviso of sorts…

Making it seem like you’re building an empire is relatively easy, when you’re creating projects that definitely seem much cooler than they are actually profitable or viable. So the trick is in ensuring that you continue to fuel the mothership (the main / umbrella brand) [with all these cool projects], whilst obviously blowing the “look at us building an empire over here”-horn.

See, when it comes to publicity, the profitability of individual projects / departments aren’t that important, as they were never destined to be considered as an independent vehicle. Instead they should be geared towards fueling that mothership, as that is the cash cow; not necessarily the shiny new idea that you are implementing.

The main brand also has a longevity that far surpasses the lifespan of an individual project. Whilst some of your newly introduced projects may be great enough to be the next cash cow, their first aim should be to contribute to the building of the brand.

That way they’re also indirectly contributing to the profitability of the business as a whole. It may seem irresponsible to allow one side of your business to operate at a loss, but this is where you need some balls and you need to view the situation from a holistic point-of-view. Don’t let isolated situations impair your judgement. Focus on the mothership, as that is where you will find the greatest value, sustainability and hopefully profits in the longer term.