Last week I had the opportunity to interview Quiane Crews, a 20-year-old multimillionaire, who became one by selling his manufacturing company Shenzhen Jinli for over $100 Million.
He’s recently been featured on Forbes as one among the 7 entrepreneurs who made millions off their exit.
I wondered if he might have faced burnout during this journey but his answers to my questions surprised me. Here’s the interview in full detail:
How do you consider work? Is it something that you’ve felt like a chore or it just happens by flow?
The goal in life is to create a life you don’t need a vacation from. To me working for someone else is working, but working on turning my dreams into reality didn’t feel like work at all, especially since I love what I do. I’ve always had a great work ethic and gave 110% every time. At first, I was just putting my time and energy into building someone else’s dream instead of mine.
How hard did you work to get where you are today?
I worked very hard to get to where I am right now. In the beginning, I didn’t have as much help as I do now. I worked like I had nothing to lose but everything to gain. Anyone that weren’t trying to grow and build I didn’t associate myself with because I wanted to remain focused on accomplishing what they said I couldn’t.
Did you ever felt burned out or stressed out through your journey?
I honestly never felt burnt out. I was trying to do everything in my power to make my parents proud, but my efforts still went unnoticed. I found myself at my lowest point when the people closest to me didn’t believe in me and doubted me which lead me to doubt myself. My mentor told me “The only person you need to believe in you is you. It’s your dream not theirs.” Since then I stopped worrying and I stopped telling them what I was up to and what I planned to do and instead focused on what I needed to do to get where I wanted to be in life.
Any tips or advice on being productive while maintaining your health?
Make a “Today List instead of a To do List” I was more organized and productive when I made a list of things to do and accomplish whether it was going on a run or to the gym at 5 am, Eating breakfast, reading, doing a conference call or 2 and going to meetings. That would be my daily routine. Tomorrow is not promised so I make sure I use my 24 hours to the best of my abilities. It’s important to read, eat healthily and workout to balance your life. My daily affirmation “I’m working on building a business within side of my life, not a life within side of my business.” If you know the difference, you’ll know balance.”
Originally published at medium.com