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Ryan Paugh graduated from Penn State in 2006 with a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business. After working in corporate communications, freelance writing and reporting, he co-founded 
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Launching BrazenCareerist.com was my first professional experience of timelessness, where time starts to become irrelevant and that feeling of normalcy that used to keep life balanced becomes harder and harder to get a grip on. Something really interesting happens when you’re completely absorbed by a project like that one. You rarely look at the clock, your schedule becomes increasingly erratic, and if not for a DVR (and of course, the writer’s strike) you miss some damn good television.
So here we are — all systems go for the BC team. But now that we’ve launched, should we expect that our day-to-day lives are going to return to normal? Not a chance.
Finding a good balance between frantic fire-fighting and numbing normalcy is always going to be a struggle. So the question is how do you establish equilibrium? Honestly, there’s really no great answer. It’s all about priorities.
Normalcy is irrelevant to an entrepreneur. You do what you have to do to get where you want to be. And hopefully, you’re able to have some fun along the way.
But take our friend Travis, former proprietor of YoungGoGetter.com, for example. His entrepreneurial lifestyle led him to become a self-proclaimed “creature of the night.”
While the rest of us were winding down around 7 p.m. and getting ready for prime time T.V. or a quick drink at happy hour, he was eating breakfast and preparing to pull his “darker” version of the daily grind.
I can’t imagine my life like that. In fact, after reading his post about it, I gave it a shot, but failed miserably. As Travis points out, you have to be pretty abnormal to navigate that terrain. And I just don’t fit the profile.
So what do I do to get a grip? I try to balance two very different mentalities. Some days, I tell myself “I have to get this done, no matter what.” And then others, I say “Hey, this isn’t going anywhere, let’s get a beer.”
Balancing your state of mind is just like deciding when it’s okay not to go to the gym. And because we all deserve a break, you shouldn’t feel bad about not going sometimes.
So tonight, in honor of our lack of sleep and hardcore work ethic while launching the company, Healy and I are headed out for a few drinks at the pool hall with our friend Dale. And I don’t feel an ounce of guilt.
Working your ass off is standard for any entrepreneur. But if you’re going to work twice as hard, then when you have the chance, you better play twice as hard as well.
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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?