‘The Profit’ star Marcus Lemonis: Stop complaining about work-life balance

FAN Editor

Marcus Lemonis doesn’t think work-life balance should be anywhere near your top concerns if you’re starting your own business.

“I think, in order to be successful, you shouldn’t be thinking about what you have to give up to be successful,” the self-made millionaire and entrepreneur tells CNBC Make It. “It’s in your blood and it’s part of the fabric of who you are.”

Lemonis, who serves as the serves as Chairman and CEO of Camping World, a company with a market value of over $2.2 billion, stars on CNBC’s “The Profit,” where he helps small business owners turn around their struggling enterprises.

On “The Profit,” Lemonis often preaches the importance of hard work and dedication when trying to grow a small business. But, when it comes to balancing work with a personal life, Lemonis says he thinks a lot of the hype around the importance of maintaining a work-life balance is overblown — especially when it comes to entrepreneurs.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to complain about work-life balance when you get there are risks and the rewards of being a business owner,” Lemonis tells CNBC Make It.

“I’ve talked a lot over the years about the difficulty in creating a work-life balance — and I know there’s a lot of self-help books and self-help videos and YouTube videos about work-life balance. And it’s something that is very easy to talk about, but when you’re a business owner or when you’re investing in multiple businesses… I think it’s more words over facts.”

Lemonis goes on to explain that “true entrepreneurs” should have enough motivation to be successful that they don’t feel like working hard, or even working long hours, means that they are completely losing out in other aspects of life.

“In this idea that you have to give something up to get [business success] is a fallacy,” Lemonis tells CNBC Make It. “I think the better way to think about it is how you have to self-regulate to be able to not crash and burn.”

However, the self-made millionaire also says that entrepreneurs can’t always go it alone in this respect.

“I think we all need our spouses and our family and our co-workers to keep us grounded,” he says. He admits that “it’s hard to keep that balance” of a healthy work like and personal life, both in good times and bad, unless you have someone close to you — family, friends, co-workers — who can hold you accountable, Lemonis says.

Ultimately, though, Lemonis believes that experiencing the success of a growing business is such an “infectious” reward in itself that it should be all the motivation an entrepreneur needs to be happy at work, and overall.

“Business has a tendency to be like a drug, and you become enraptured by it, and you become addicted to it and you want to spend a lot of time on it,” he says.

CNBC’s “The Profit” airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET .

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