"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." --Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without." --Thoreau

Small is beautiful.
The bigger you build it (the house or the corporation) the more it takes to manage it.  So spend your time building ideas instead of empires.

So how do you downsize and live simply?
1.  Write down a detailed description of your priorities.  Now, you're only hurting your chances if you write more than three.
2.  Allocate your resources.  You only have a certain amount of time and money.  Know where they are going.
3.  Learn to say, "no."
4.  Build a routine.  Out of bed at six one day, eight twenty the next, seven the other, and nine on Saturday's doesn't give you the structure you need.  Pick an every day time.
5.  Go ultralight.  There's a huge difference in a fifty pound backpack and a twenty pounder.  "But what if I need this?  What if I need that?"  I think we'd be surprised about how little we need.  Your soul can feel the weight of your materialism just like your back can.
6.  Give stuff away.  Purge.  Then at least one thing more thing every month for a year.

Why do we want all of this stuff anyway?