Work-Life Balance : An Outside idea
This week I met with a business owner who has a partner and 2 young kids. They were hell bent on building a successful business and were working some incredible (and unsustainable) hours as a result. Rising at 6am, they would work until their young workforce came online at 9. Between 9 and 5 he troubleshoot problems for his team. 5-7:30 was daddy time, feed bath bed and the work started at 8 and went on till 11. I cant help but admire this sort of work ethic at the same time as passionately believing that theres a better way…
“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air.… You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls — family, health, friends, and spirit — are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same.”
~ Bryan Dyson, former CEO, Coca-Cola.
The first few years of running a business are some of the toughest. But the hope for every business owner is that as their company grows, they’ll be able to bring more staff on board and will therefore have more time to themselves.
However, this is not always the case. A growing business means growing responsibility so instead of having more time to yourself or with your family, you might find yourself cancelling plans five years into business just as you did two months in.
Your business is part of your life. There are days where you’ll need to spend more time on it, equally there must be times when you spend more time on yourself or with family and friends. If you constantly have to drop your precious glass balls for your rubber work ball, you’ll jeopardize the things that (if you think about it) are really the most important.
If you’d like some help rebalancing, get in touch. Outside ideas are on a mission to help people and business grow.
Onwards and Upwards my friends
Px
