After Launch, Work-Life Balance Remains

And then the gripping reality of entrepreneurial insomnia sets in (is there an entrepreneur who isn't an insomniac?). 4:00am rolls around to my mind spinning, thinking about the VC pitch my co-founders are giving, the best way to implement our next feature, the girl I can't keep my mind off of, and the 100 other things I've been putting off because there isn't any time.

Yet, as Paugh says, I won't ever regret the hour or two I take off every once in a while. Without those moments, I'd completely lose it. I'll never be able to turn it off, but your friends can at least offer a much-needed respite. My advice to the other readers: as an entrepreneur, don't forget about them. They may just help you keep it together.

Good advice Dale. And I think you bring up an excellent point. Friends are an essential part of the life of an entrepreneur. Of course, they're essential in any life, but it's important for us to have those important people that give us a reality check when need be.

This sounds like a week before election day in 2006, when we still had about 300 political ads to get int he mail in the next 2 days.

My boss walked out of his office and yelled "Screw it. We're all going to dinner." And we did. We had a nice couple hours, just enjoying each other's company and taking a few breaths.

If we hadn't taken that couple hours, God only knows how we would have made it to the end.

Great advice.

Enjoy that beer, you guys deserve it! Fascinating post, it's good to hear all the different perspectives you guys have on this. When Dale said "gripping reality" above it made me think that you guys should get a reality show… has there been one about entrepreneurs? There was one about starting a restaurant with Rocco Dispirito a few years back that sort of fits the bill…

This is precisely what I mean when I say that work-life balance is about the choices we make in the circumstances we find ourselves. There is no balance, simply what's next based upon what needs or doesn't need to be done.

And nice going on the site!

Jacqui:

I think it's so important to step away. Especially when you get so wrapped up in something that it's consuming you too much.

Sounds like your team made a good decision.

Jacci:

Thanks! I really did enjoy the beer(s).

I've said it once and I'll say it again, if anyone want to produce the BC reality special have your people call my people…

Scot:

Thanks Scot. I'm glad we're on the same page. Getting in touch with our personal needs is the first step in achieving the elusive work/life balance.

One way I try to balance the work/life stuff is to, at the very least, get out of the office for lunch. And I mean actually leaving the building and surrounding area…not just walking outside with a bologna sandwich.

Tonight was going to be my night off but my laptop has an almost hypnotic power over me. Stupid laptop.

Shawn:

Laptops will get the best of you if you don't watch out.

I really like getting out for the office for lunch too. Today I went to my friends' new franchise for a burger. When I walked in they had all the new employees scream my name. Made my day.

Shawn, that is almost exactly my comment, verbatim! So ditto to Shawn.

Balance is truly one of those tricky things where different people do different things to achieve it because it looks different for everyone. . . but you know instinctively when you're out of balance, so it's hard, because there is never an exact formula that works every time for fixing it when it's broken

So I think just continuing to look for it, and checking yourself to see if you have it, are so important.

Great point, Ryan. As a fairly recent entrepreneur myself, I've been thinking a lot about this too. I think that especially when our business is an expression of our passion, there is a tendency to feel that we should be pouring all of ourselves into it. And then you realize that, even though you now love what you do and are totally in a state of "flow" while you're doing it and maybe even feel that this is what you were meant to do with your life, it is still not who you are. You are still yourself, and you need to be taking care of this self. It was a total revelation for me when I realized that, as an entrepreneur doing something I loved, I'd still need to worry about the problem of work-life balance. Well, we live, we learn, right?

[...] author of Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success. With help from Ryan Paugh and Ryan Healy of Employee Evolution, she has just launched the brand-spanking-new Brazen Careerist blog network, and I am lucky enough [...]