Founder’s Friday featuring Steve Whittington @ LifeWorking Holdings

Please provide a brief description about your company.
LifeWorking Coworking is a suburban, community-focused, corporate-enabled flexible workplace concept designed to be part of your Life … Working – no matter who you are or what you do.

Two hashtags that best describe you
#livelifedomore #alwayslearning

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
My greatest personal accomplishment has played out over the last 35 years with my high school sweetheart and wife, of 32 years, Melinda Whittington. My greatest professional achievement, not (yet) my greatest professional success , is creating LifeWorking Coworking from a paper concept to the critically acclaimed suburban, community innovation hub that it is today. I see this as my greatest achievement due to 1) brilliant people that have advised and worked with me to bring LifeWorking to life 2) the (hard) transformation from a multi-national corporate-type to a gloriously overwhelmed small-business owner/entrepreneur and 3) everything that I have fought through and learned from along the way.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
For me, if everyday I can find the unexpected, see a glimpse of what really COULD be or simple be quiet – and see how simple the world can be when you let it – that is happiness for me.

What is your greatest fear?
My greatest fear is that things start to move so quickly with our company that I get lost in What we are doing at LifeWorking and lose track of Why.

Whom do you most admire?
Moms in the workforce. I’m married to one, work with several and you will find none better at dealing with Life and everything that Life throws at you.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Easy one – I would listen a bit more and jump to the “obvious conclusion” or “next step” a little less. Always working on this one.

What are your top tips for balancing work and life?
It is YOUR balance, absolutely on one elses – listen to trusted advisors and those that truly care about you – but don’t copy. Focus on the journey, not the destination. There is ALWAYS somewhere else to go, something else to do, another box to check, but along the way, don’t walk by those opportunities to “do” for your family, for your friends or, most often overlooked, for yourself.

What is something new that you learned about running a business this year?
I learned, or am learning, how to traverse a pandemic and ALL of the collective uncertainty with family, friends, employees, colleagues, members and suppliers. So far, the biggest lesson is that business can be very personal.

What is your most marked characteristic?
I’m physically big and a bit of a smart ass – garnering a bit more attention than I’d like sometimes.

What is your greatest regret?
No regrets. I do recognize forks in the road as I look backward and consider how choices have informed who I am today but zero regrets.

What is your motto?
#LiveLifeDoMore – whatever that means for you.

What is a legal mistake you wish someone warned you about?
So far so good. From the very beginning, find professionals that fill in your flat spots AND that are good people. That was Meyer Law for me from Day 1.

When running your business, what do you struggle with most?
Priorities. Specifically, ensuring that I am accountable to the actions and activities that are not naturally part of my skill set.

What advice would you give to yourself at 25 years old?
#LiveLifeDoMore and hold on! You have NO idea … 🙂