Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Richard Luck
The cliché goes: “A happy wife is a happy life.”
It may be cliché, but there is a mountain of truth to it. If your significant other absentmindedly mentions that he/she never sees you for dinner anymore, you had better resolve the situationquickly. If your kids start to refer to you as “that guy” as you’reheaded out the door in the morning, then you had better take stock of yourpriorities.
A couple of weeks ago I spent the better part of an hourdiscussing this very topic with several entrepreneurs. One was about a year into a start-upco-founded with her spouse, another was about a year this side of a divorcecaused, in no small part, to the stresses of running a start-up. I forget where the rest were time-wise,but all were struggling in their own way to resolve the question: what is the right work/life balance.
I don’t think there is a rightanswer. I do think, however,there are many, many wrong answers. I’m troubled by young entrepreneurs who wear like a badge of honor thefact that they’re putting in 100+ hour weeks. It’s not that I think they’re making the rest of us looklazy (which, honestly, they are), but that I don’t think it’s healthy for themor their company. When a personbecomes this single-minded in their approach to life and business, they becomeincapable of seeing beyond the walls they’ve constructed aroundthemselves. Put another way: theinsight into our business I’ve achieved by discussing customer acquisitiontactics with a peer while riding a chair-lift to the top of a snow-packedmountain rival any eureka momentsI’ve had at two in the morning while at my computer, banging away at thekeyboard.
No matter what you believe, or what others have told you,your business is rarely so fragile that it can not suffer some minorneglect now and again. I’m not saying purposefully neglect what needs tobe done. I’m saying that therewill always be something that needs to be done. We need to treat our start-ups likemarathons and set a pace for ourselves that we can maintain for the long haul. And in doing so, we need ensure thatthis pace accounts for things like stepping away every once in a while torecharge.
There are probably a half-dozen other companies out theretrying to do something similar to what you’re doing. And if you’re anygood at it, the competition will only increase. Being first to market is notgoing to change this. Time to market is not your enemy in thesesituations. I disagree with the mantra that the first person out the gatewins. There are too manyexceptions to this rule in the real world.
As Howard Aiken once said: “Don’t worry about peoplestealing your ideas. If it’s original, you’ll have to ram it down theirthroats.” In other words, if what you’re doing is worth anything, it’sworth doing right. And that means taking the time to do things sanely,without burning yourself (and your family/co-worker/friends) out in theprocess. Take the time to enjoy the process because it’s going to taketime to get it right.
Alyssa Royse wrote a fantasticpost concerning the arbitrary (and oftentimes insane) deadlines weplace on ourselves in the course of running our businesses. It’srecommended for anyone at the helm of a company. And it should bemandatory reading for any IT person who still believes releases must go outevery Thursday come hell or high-water.
With that said, I’m going to get back to my family. I’m supposed to be on vacation—and I promised my kids I’d goswimming with them today.
