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With the heat of summer settling in, most people are busy contemplating vacation plans and time with families and friends. They’re having fun and recharging. Meanwhile, many entrepreneurs struggle to enjoy time off, even when they manage to squeeze it in. Wanting a fresh perspective, I asked Greg, an entrepreneur who owns an IT company, about his former struggle with vacations. When Greg started his company, he was working so hard that he couldn’t even IMAGINE the idea of taking time off.  

One morning, I had to walk my dogs alone, since my wonderful wife was out of town.  At first, I popped my headphones in and started listening to Comedy Central.  But for some reason after I walked out of my home's Wi-Fi range, the signal crapped out, and so I was met with silence.  Rather than drag my phone out of my pocket, I just walked with the silence, and after a couple of minutes of consciously enjoying the sun and view of the lakes and my cute dogs, my brain popped out the answer to a complicated problem I'd been thinking about for a couple of days. Eureka!

One of Awesome’s values is Apply Curiosity. Being curious is a powerful antidote to those times that you are frustrated or just don’t feel like being an understanding, connected leader. Here’s how to get into a curious mindset -- and it’s easier than you might think.

There are times when I’m sure I am right, when I’m sure the other person is wrong, when I’m angry or frustrated, or when I just don’t care. You may have felt like this at some point too. Those are the times that curiosity is the most valuable.

Here are some of the reasons curiosity helps most when it feels most wrong:

A few days ago I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and a post from an entrepreneur acquaintance of mine caught my eye.  Essentially, it was “I just got a business email with the subject ‘my feelings’.  Can you believe it?  I’m not even sure how to respond.”

I was stunned. I felt empathy for whoever it was that wrote that email, and I was offended by the Facebook comments that seemed to almost mock that author.  And then I remembered that not so long ago, that was me, paralyzed when confronted with feelings in business.  And then I felt empathy for the entrepreneur, too.

A few years ago, something started to dawn on me.   

Business is about humans.