Entrepreneur Magazine September 2016

“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.” —Benjamin Franklin Passion. What a thing. It’s that adrenaline pump that wakes you up in the middle of the night with a vast idea—one that will be the next (insert something big here). But here’s the catch: Passion also causes insomnia. It overrides your saner instincts. It is fully absorbing. Passion is chocolate cake: You can’t subsist on it alone. You have to know when to give passion a break. You have to know when reason should step in. I admit: I’m not very good at toggling between the two. I’m mostly stuck on passion—speeding my motorcycle down a winding road, traveling until I’m run ragged, staying in an industry I adore (print magazines!) even as the rest of the world…

LAST YEAR I was a guest on an NPR call-in talk show to discuss workplace etiquette. Most calls were about shaking hands, conducting meetings, asking for a raise, recovering from calling your boss by your wife’s name. (Maybe that’s just me.) It was light and funny, until one caller asked for advice about being shunned by her coworkers. They would gather near her desk, talking about work she was involved in without asking her to weigh in. They never invited her to lunch or after-work drinks. When she brought up her feelings, her colleagues dismissed and mocked her. She felt unimportant and ostracized. And she sounded deeply distressed. I felt ill-equipped to answer the question. I stammered out a reply. I made a joke. (She didn’t laugh.) The show’s host…

For Angelo Chiodo, the passion to operate his own business is in his blood. Way back in 1929, Chiodo’s family started a sheet metal fabrication and refrigeration company. Even as a young man, he recognized the passion and freedom that comes with being your own boss. Nearly four decades ago, Chiodo did just as he said he would; he founded Chiodo Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration, Inc. in 1978. Based in Syracuse, N.Y., Chiodo’s company provides residential and commercial HVAC services and even dabbles in commercial projects – from new construction to improving existing facilities. The company now includes 25 employees. For Chiodo, his company’s longevity has been dependent on his ability to provide customers with reliable service. “The best part of owning my own business is the feeling you…

Q How do I build a cohesive team? A Kari Granger, an executive and leadership coach in Evergreen, Colo., learned a few things about team building during her 12 years at the Air Force Academy and in the Air Force, followed by stints in corporate America. Here are three of them: • Know what matters. To inspire a group, you need to know what makes its individuals tick. Some want to make a difference. Some just want to provide for their families. “When you make decisions and take actions,” Granger says, “have what is fundamentally important to each member in mind.” • Shape their purpose. Your team needs a goal— but that doesn’t mean each member will understand their role in reaching it. It’s your job to show them. “They need to…

SOME STUDIES HAVE found that working from home leads to greater productivity and higher morale. Others suggest that those benefits are at best temporary, and that prolonged time spent working from home actually saps one’s productivity and, eventually, will to live. But whatever the reality, as the gig economy grows and more companies look to save on office space, working from home is officially a thing, and thus it falls to us to learn to do it. And do it well. And possibly do it while not wearing pants. As someone who has spent roughly a third of his career working from home, and who is literally not wearing pants while writing this column, I’m firmly in camp yes on the matter. Nearly two years into my latest stretch in…

DAVID HEATH needed to attend meetings in Austin, L.A., San Francisco and Las Vegas. The best airfare he found was $948, with two layovers. Yuck. So instead of calling a travel agent, he called his travel hacker. Travel addicts, who once simply blogged about how to exploit online glitches, airline loyalty memberships and credit card points, are now using their tricks to book corporate travel. One of the largest groups is an agency called FlightFox, which, for $49, booked Heath’s four-stop trip for $704. “More important,” says Heath, cofounder of the athletic sock manufacturer Bombas, “they saved me hours of frustration.” Travel hackers take many forms. Many are individuals. Some work in collectives: The Travel Hacking Cartel, for example, sells advice starting at $12.50 a month. Others, like the startup…