Loneliness in business impacts drive and motivation and is a common problem. Please see this poll and post HERE

There cannot be more lonely a moment in business than when you are attacked online, many things leave us feeling lonely and isolated.

Feeling isolated, alone, working on your own. No matter how loving a family you have around you, no matter how connected you are online. Self employment, starting up a business, owning a small business, there are times when most have us have felt alone.

The Business Cafe are working with the Jo Cox Foundation to highlight this and find ways to reduce ‘Loneliness in Self Employment”.

Please share this post and help us to find out how big a problem this is. If you have time, read on, I share my feelings openly #RawandReal is my moto, so you may find comfort in them yourself, I imagine what I share here is not an isolated feeling at all.

Our #StrongmindStrongBusiness campaign is embedded deep in the culture of all that we do at The Business Cafe. Feeling a sense of belonging to a community that cares for you as a friend, shows kindness, is open with one another and seeks to reduce any feel of loneliness is a powerful driver for Gail and I. Online and offline.

I was not aware that I would need the support that I received from our friends within The Business Cafe 
over the past 48 hours. In fact, I only just realized the action I took on Monday to drive up to Peterborough to physically sit with Gail Thomas rather than talk through Skype was actually due to business loneliness. It is ironic that we don’t realize that what we want to heal for others is actually down to the pain we have ourselves.

My sense of loneliness this week came from the attacks I received from a tiny number of people that wrote abusive replies to our mailings rather than purely unsubscribe. I have never personally done a mailshot, this was a new experience for me, as one of my lovely friends within The Business Cafe put it..

“I really don’t understand why people react like this. Those that don’t want emails can unsubscribe. If they are business people they should understand the determination and strength it takes to keep pushing and achieve your goals. Being an entrepreneur takes guts”.

Loneliness, the inability to share something good or bad with another person, is known to impact drive and motivation. It impacts self esteem, self worth and is a deep emotion that can trigger anxiety and depression. I was not aware that I suffered this in business for years after Ecademy came to an end, I only knew that something was wrong and missing in my life. How could I, a hugely connected person, a family that surrounded me and cared for me at home. But loneliness in business is a different set of needs. To feel we are relevant, to be heard, to have deeper conversations than purely a LIKE on a page, or a RT. We seek attention through the online world, and while we believe that might drive more revenue, are we actually seeking something more than that?

I experienced terrible loneliness as a child, the last thing I wanted was to feel it as an adult. When I went self-employed, boy did I feel it. A new mum, isolated by that shift, on top of that I was now self-employed too. A double whammy, in 1992 when the Internet was not part of our daily lives.

My drive for 19 years, since 1998, has been to bring people together, to ‘connect business hearts’.

Those people in the economy that step out and courageously start a business and work alone, learn the skills to run, maintain, build a business and work the hours they do to give the most amazing service to their clients are surely the most important people in the economy. Yet, loneliness and isolation is a huge problem and we need to cure this. It starts with awareness and also knowing you are not alone with this feeling.

If you have experienced what I am talking about here please tell us on the poll and in words if you are willing to share. This poll is critical as we need statistics for the Jo Cox Report. The Poll – Loneliness Poll

Facebook Group where we are real, raw and caring. Search The Business Cafe Global on Facebook or click HERE