Pragmatic Consulting Club - Paying The Taxes Of Life

Seneca said, “I pay the taxes of life gladly.” But he wasn't talking specifically about government taxes.

Difficult people are a tax on working with new clients. Unforeseen delays and annoyances are a tax on travel. Negative comments are a tax on publishing content and engaging with your audience online.

As Ryan Holiday puts it,

If you become a famous person, they’ll make up rumors about you. If you do charitable work, people will question your intentions or your motivations. If you have kids, you will lose sleep. There’s a tax on everything in life. You can whine about it. Or you can pay the taxes of life gladly, as Seneca said, and then move on.

That's a good reminder for every consulting partner. If you think productizing your services or shifting the way you market your firm is the cure to all of your problems, think again.

These might be great initiatives for you to build a practice on your terms, but you will need to pay taxes on them as well. The question is: which taxes are you willing to gladly pay?