Someone asked me about paychecks recently. Once you've owned a business before, it becomes nearly impossible to think in terms of five-day work weeks, weekends as rest days, plan for annual leave and look forward to monthly pay checks.

It is not about clocking the hours in the office. It is also not purely about year end sales targets and looking forward to receiving bonus payouts. Owning a business is about managing resources, people (talent) and money (financial).

As business owners we don't live paycheck to paycheck. We usually don't have a choice on when we get paid. There are no golden parachutes, no notice periods or "gardening leave". We also don't have real leave days to speak of really, and we can't really fire ourselves in exchange for severance pay.

An entrepreneur is constantly kept on his toes not because he is afraid of losing his job but because he fears for his survival, for cash flow, as well as the scarcity of the resources around him - both people and money.

That constant worry is what keeps him alive.