The other day I read an article on Inc. asking if the dream of having a happy family life whilst at the same time running a successful startup is possible. To me the answer to that is ‘Yes’.
Life is what you make it and if you want to have a happy family life whilst at the same time run a successful startup, company or have a career in general, then one way or another it can be done. One thing doesn’t automatically exclude the other and whilst it’s not always easy, it’s about finding a way to make both work.
An opportunity
You might be thinking that I’m being naive, not understanding all of the work that is involved in running a startup, or what it means to have kids. Of course, until I have children of my own and am part of running our successful startup I can’t say that I to a 100% know what’s involved. However, therein also lies the opportunity to learn as I go along and shape things from the beginning.
Whilst we are in the very early infancy of our startup I’ve already got a taste of what juggling time and priorities means and it’s by no means easy. I know it will prove even more testing but as with everything in life you learn along the way and you adjust accordingly. And if you don’t, we’ll, then it wasn’t meant to be. Or, you just haven’t managed to get the balance right just yet. If that’s the case then there’s still room for improvement.
A choice
What we choose to spend out time on is our choice. Right now I’m choosing to spend a lot of time working on our company and ideas and by doing so I’m sacrificing other things. I’m ok to do that for now. However, these crazy working hours is for a limited period of time. It’s not how I will spend the rest of my working life, or even the next few years.
The Inc. article is referencing the sacrifices Jobs did with regards to family and how other people are reflecting over that there is a hidden price to Job’s success:
Start-up life is hard on families. We just welcomed two new members into our family, and running as fast as you can isn’t sustainable for parents of multiple small children. The death of Steve Jobs, and his subsequent posthumous biography, highlighted the risks for a lot of folks. […] Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange have been wildly successful, but I finally realized that success at the cost of my children is not success. It is failure.
– Jeff Atwood, a co-founder of Stack Exchange
It’s great that people are reflecting over these matters and it’s great that people are realising that we always have a choice. Job’s sacrificed a lot but then that was his choice. It won’t be mine but it doesn’t mean that I’m not going to make our start up work. On the contrary, I’m going to do both.
The challenge
One of the main reasons I’m going down this road is actually because I want, and will have a balance between work and life outside of work. I love what I do for a living but just doing it isn’t enough. I have a drive to make a dent and to shape things and having grown up in a country where the focus in work-life balance is on life, and where the working culture and society is set up to support it, I know it can be done. The key is flexibility.
I can’t say too much about it yet but what we’re creating is something that will allow for this balance to be had. As I’ve mentioned before tell me something can’t be done and you’ll only fuel me to prove that yes it can be done and even brilliantly at that. The more I read of the challenges startup life and having a career in general means, the more determined I am to change perception and to succeed in what we’re setting out to do.
The future is ours to shape.
Tomorrow – Day 043 | Week 6 summary
Image source: www.flickr.com/photos/jailman/6841370351
