"I have one life, and it must come together."

Inc. gathered five entrepreneurs to define what The Good Life means to them and how they're living it.

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INC.: What does the good life mean to you?

Danny O'Neill, 43. President, founder, and owner of the Roasterie Inc. ($3.4 million annual revenue; 16 employees), a specialty coffee-roasting company in Kansas City, Mo.

Monique Greenwood, 44. Founder, CEO, and president of Akwaaba Enterprises Inc. ($1 million; 5 employees) in Brooklyn, N.Y., which includes three bed-and-breakfast inns and rental properties. She is the former editor in chief of Essence magazine.

Harley Cross, 25. President and CEO of Hint Mint Inc. ($1.7 million; 8 employees), which makes designer mints and is based in Los Angeles. He is also an actor currently filming Kinsey with Liam Neeson and Laura Linney.

Kenin Spivak, 46. Chairman, president, and CEO of Telemac (under $50 million; 58 employees), a Los Angeles billing company for the wireless industry. He is also vice chairman of hair care company John Paul Mitchell Systems.

Monique Rivas, 35. CEO and co-founder of Luz Inc. ($4 million; 18 employees), which translates technical documents for health industries and is based in San Francisco.

H.C.: Trying to have as few double standards between the good business life and the good personal life. If your business is your life, it's the idea of doing something you really want to do. It's self-determination, freedom, and not feeling stuck--to be able to say, "Okay, move on because I don't want to do this anymore."

D.O.: For the last seven or eight years I've focused on freedom and balance. Balance is elusive when you start a business and work extraordinary hours. As for freedom--it doesn't make any difference how much you have if you can't feel relaxed when you do have time. If you have a castle but you can't relax in it, that's not freedom.

M.G.: I'm passionate about a lot of things, but probably none more than trying to empower African American people; so a lot of my businesses are within the black community, where I can employ people who haven't had the opportunity to work in businesses that service people who are like them. I can't have a good life unless the people I care about are having a good life too.

K.S.: Part of my enjoying the good life is not so much the word freedom as security. It is important to me to have the financial security to know that should something go wrong, the consequences won't be terribly severe. Maybe it's selfish compared with Monique's point because although I do have some charitable endeavors, I don't think I'm really looking to make the world a better place.

M.G.: The good life means having options. It's subjective, and I celebrate that because what rocks in my world doesn't rock in another's. It's critical that everyone define success on their own terms. When you're younger, you think of it as the corner office and a fine car. Those things are important, but it's also important to have great family and friends, and time to stall.

M.R.: Some entrepreneurs have this mindset that they want a lot of money--they want to push from a $10 million company to $20 million, and I think, "Why isn't it feeling good enough, especially if we got a big return on investment?" There's another way to do this, which is make sure that you're living the life that you want to lead but help people along the way. For example, [my company is] able to translate museum exhibits for free or provide translations for nonprofit health care programs.

INC.: It sounds as if part of the good life is creating a business out of a passion.

D.O.: I was an exchange student in Costa Rica, which is where I became a coffee fanatic. I started the company to eke out a living loving what I do.

M.R.: My passions are people and travel. We have offices in Buenos Aires and soon, Tokyo, plus we contract with 3,000 linguists worldwide, so I can combine both.

INC.: Is the good life in a corporation different from the good life with your own company?

K.S.: I was an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, where there were five ranks above me and five ranks below me and 44,000 employees. I had an employee code with 300 digits, and there were policies for everything. If I tried to do something that was too innovative or too different, somebody would say, "Someone in another department has to do that." They'd either shift it over or add more people so that instead of ever doing anything by myself, there were 20 people doing it. I enjoy being able to get things done on my own or in a small team.

M.G.: I feel completely in control of my own destiny. When you have your own business, you can say, "I have my own goals," and, "This is where I want to be," and work toward that. Having flexible time is the biggest benefit of being an entrepreneur. I have a young daughter. If I take off time to go on a class trip or to a school play, I can make up work in my pajamas at 2 in the morning if I want.

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