After a particularly frustrating day recently, a good friend and fellow small business owner contacted me and started complaining about how tired she is, how she wishes she didn't have to work so hard, how it's so much easier to work for someone else.

You may have felt like this too, likely more than once if you've been in business for any period of time.

But I know this friend well enough to know that all her bellyaching was really just venting because she's tired from too much business to handle and needs some R&R.

So I played devil's advocate and started talking about how great it would be for her to go back to her previous full-time work, how it was very practical to have to travel 6 months of the year to less-than-exciting locales with generic, cookie-cutter hotels that all looked the same. And it was especially lovely not be able to spend her own birthday with her husband, whom she doesn't like anyway. (And yes, in case it isn't clear, all of this was ironic in nature.)

When I listed all the things that she hated about her previous job, I heard it -- that audible quick-change in her tone of voice that indicated her suddenly recognized thrill to be stressed out from making more than she ever has in her life, even if it's a little more work than she'd like right now until she gets some of her admin work outsourced.

Maybe you've been through the same thing. Or maybe you're upset because you're not making as much as you want, and it feels like you're working around the clock.

There's a cure for all of the above, and it has a lot to do with how you prioritize your time and find your way. But that's a subject for another post and a subject I cover a lot in one form or fashion.

Instead, I request that you push your chair back, close your eyes and take a deep breath. Then answer me this: ain't it great to be on your own?

What if you were beholden to bosses and politics and shifts and timelines of when everyone else was doing everything?

What if you were only able to make your salary, and the rest of what you earned your firm went into someone else's wallet?

What were your reasons for venturing into this world of "you get what you make of it"?

As an entrepreneur, you've got the power. You're in the drivers seat. And from time to time you must take time to smell the roses.

It's a wonderful thing to be able to have the freedom to run your own show. (After all, when else would you be able to write blog posts at midnight?) I for one wouldn't trade it for the world.

And I hope that you too can take a moment every few days to revel in your own independence.