My best friend’s business failed.

Four years ago, we were both dentists looking to escape our jobs. But whilst I chose the content route, he chose to code—building a health and fitness app.

It was a series of unfortunate events since.

His team was a nightmare to manage. The app took too long to build. Plus, he started before AI. So even if he did launch, it’s out of date from day one.

On a call last week he explained he’d finally stopped working on the app. It made him feel sick to his stomach. He dreaded it.

And honestly?

I was relieved. Sunken cost can be a bitch to overcome.

But as we wrapped up our chat, he said something that set off my alarm bells:

“I’m still not done.”

Now, I admire persistence. But I’m worried for him.

Why?

Because he’s not having fun.

We think we need to suffer as entrepreneurs. We imagine it’s our duty to carry the cross for a decade to emerge victorious among the blood and broken bones of business.

But the point of entrepreneurship is you get to build a business that supports your life.

Not the other way around.

You operate at your best when curiosity is aligned with competence. Not when each day feels like crawling through broken glass.

I’ve learned (and still am learning) this lesson the hard way.

One example is social media. I worked hard for my audience, but I hate algorithm-chasing, crowd pleasing content. And I can’t stand forced engagement. I thought I had to do it because I wanted to ‘keep up with other creators’.

But I began dreading my week.

So I asked myself: What would my business look like if I was having fun?

The answer was obvious:

More emails.

I love emails because they’re a one-on-one conversation. You don’t need to worry about trends and timelines. You can follow your curiosity, share interesting stories, and lean into your personality.

I was terrified when I reduced my social media time by 90%.

But as a result, my newsletter became more popular. I made $531,914 over the past year, which is 3x more than the previous.

My point?

There are parts of your business that light you up. Parts you’re ignoring because you’re doing what’s expected instead of what’s enjoyable.

These are the parts where you must double down.

Because people pay attention to people having fun.

For example, over the past month, I’ve been sharing stories like this email whilst gently promoting my upcoming course Magnetic Emails.

2102 people have joined the waitlist—which I find crazy.

But if I wasn’t enjoying writing these, you wouldn’t want to learn them from me. Nor would I have spent hundreds of hours testing and iterating to build a simple 6-step process to make story-based emails effortless.

This feels like play to me, which should translate to play for you.

Now, I don’t know how the launch will go.

But I’m not worried about it either because it’s been a pleasure to prepare for.

And that’s the attitude you need to survive and thrive in business.

Enjoy yourself—life’s too short not to.

Kieran