Steve Blank: To live for work or work for life?

The questions “whether to put everything on the altar of a startup?” And “is it worth working 15 hours a day instead of 14 to achieve a goal?” Sooner or later arise in the head of any company founder. Many words have already been said on the topic of work not “12 o'clock, but with the head,” however, not everyone can find a balance between work and the rest of life.



UPD: Perhaps the article is fairly obvious things, I have no idea how developers and programmers will react to this, but probably there is something in it. Steve is by no means a business coach; he has launched about 10 companies and continues to develop his businesses, sharing his experience along the way.



So his opinion about the combination of life and work:



I met my future wife on a blind date and even then I realized that, in addition to common interests, we were bound by the desire to start a family with children. Our first daughter was born 4 months after I launched the fourth startup. The second daughter was born a little over a year later.

')

My wife and I immediately agreed to abide by several rules. So, for example, we decided that I would continue to be involved in startups, although she understood that most of the care for children would fall on her shoulders - I just physically could not be at home at 5 pm every day!



Naturally, we could not do without quarrels and certain difficulties, but on the whole our agreements bore fruit. They can also serve as good advice for young entrepreneurs:



1) Dine together as often as possible. Despite the unpredictability of work in a startup, I had to be at home at 7 o'clock in the evening. At dinner, we discussed children's affairs, school performance, and other topics.



2) Put the children to bed. I did not realize how important it was for them to spend time together from dinner to bedtime stories, until they admitted that to me, when they were already teenagers.



3) Try not to just listen, but to hear. At first it was difficult for me to switch from work to home questions, but then I realized that I could work in the office, come home, spend time with my family and ... return to work only when the children are sleeping. They never saw me sit down at my computer again and work until dawn.



4) Spend weekends with children and for children. I have always tried to spend time with them interestingly: a zoo, a beach, museums, picnics, amusement parks, etc.



5) If you work on weekends, then only on Saturday morning. Sometimes I took my children to the office on Saturday morning. As they later confessed, these trips helped them better understand what I really did. In addition, the children in the office helped me to introduce certain rules of behavior in the company, which also always had a positive impact on the work process.



6) Spend a long joint vacation once a year. As a rule, over the course of three weeks in the summer, we went to the US national parks (the love of walking is what always united us with my wife). The older the children got, the farther we went on our trips. Traveling helped them understand that life is not only California and Silicon Valley. Life is different, and in many countries its level is much lower.



7) Never miss important events in the life of children . School plays, football matches, piano concerts - I tried to attend them as often as possible, even if they fell in the middle of the day.



8) Involve your spouse in your work. I gave all my important presentations and documents for criticism to my wife. Her every piece of advice helped me get a little better. In consultation with my wife, I gave her the opportunity to understand what exactly I was working on and what goals I was trying to achieve.



9) Sometimes spend time only together. Try to find a little time for a mini-date.



10) Always try to help your spouse to the maximum. At the very beginning of family life, we did not have a lot of money, but, nevertheless, tried to invest it in the development of our children. It really helped my wife, and so I tried to somehow compensate for my absence.



11) Follow the tradition. It does not matter whether family holidays or religious, the main thing is to include the whole family.



12) Go on business trips only when it is really necessary. When you run a company, you understand that every little thing, every process needs your presence, regardless of geographic location. With the advent of children, I learned to prioritize my business travels.



13) Try to capture every moment. Photo. Video filming. All this is a good memory.



14) Work for life, not live for work. When I was young, my basic principles were "I myself" and "now." With age, I began to understand and accept the concepts of "other" and "for the future." Work 24 hours 7 days a week was not my main goal in life. Being an entrepreneur without a relationship, I thought that “I live in order to work”, there was nothing more exciting and more important than work. The children changed my philosophy to “I work to live decently”.



15) Work more wisely, not persistently. Work efficiency does not depend on the time spent on it. These considerations formed the basis of my Customer Development strategy.



16) Think about what will happen after your death. The life given to you is not a trial attempt, the second one will not. Live in such a way that with respect to your family you never had to sigh "I could ...". In the end, what would you prefer to see on your tombstone: the phrase "He was never late for meetings" or "He was an excellent father"?



17) One last thing : leave on time.



Is it suitable only for founders and managers or also for developers and programmers?

This is the opposite position of Nigel Marsh, who claims that to achieve a balance between work and life is quite simple when you have no work.