There is a persistent, unspoken belief that entrepreneurs must work 70-100 hours per week in order to be successful. In fact, this is often glorified. Despite philosophies like The Four Hour Work Week becoming wildly popular, long work weeks have remained the norm.
Rahim Fazal (disclosure: Rahim is a member of Empact Sphere) is the co-founder of Involver, which raised $10M and eventually sold to
However, it is a complex issue. While Rahim may have temporarily damaged his health and some of his closest relationships, he is a lot richer now. Since he sold his company, he has taken multiple long vacations with his family and friends to rebuild bonds, begun a daily gym and meditation habit, changed his diet, and given back through speaking.
Given the two recent high-profile suicides of tech entrepreneurs, Aaron Swartz and Jody Sherman, that have rocked the startup world, the topic is timely. Rahim took a personal risk, and it paid off. It hasn’t for most. Is sacrificing our personal health and relationships worth the cost of a potential financial and reputational gain or social impact in the future?
A Culture of Shame Around Personal Challenges
To answer the risk question, I talked to a variety of entrepreneurs at different stages of growth as well as one of Silicon Valley’s top life coaches. Rather than provide pithy time management advice, I wanted to delve deep into the topic.
As I started talking to people, I quickly ran into a realization. Talking publicly about the topic brought fear of judgement for many including one person who agreed to speak only on the basis of anonymity. Two of the people I interviewed said that things like sharing vacation photos was a taboo as investors might see them.
People who start 'lifestyle' businesses and who talk about balance and stress are often put into a bucket of people who aren’t serious about business.
The anonymous young female founder that I spoke to is a graduate of Stanford and Harvard and raised $700,000 to start a socially-conscious tech company. She is now in the beginning phases of shutting her company down for personal reasons. “I hadn’t found the right balance. The costs had started to outweigh very, very significantly what was coming back to me, my investors, and employees now and in the future. After seeing a therapist for 7 months, I finally made the hard decision to shut down the company. I’ve started telling people selectively. Some people have been supportive. Others have said that I need to suck it up and that high stress is part of what it means to be an entrepreneur.” She admits that her experience was self-inflicted, but she thinks her experience of high anxiety is far from unique.
As much as Silicon Valley specifically and America in general celebrate retrospective failure, there is a lot of shame wrapped up in discussing personal challenges as they’re happening.
What Makes Work-Life Balance Uniquely Challenging For Entrepreneurs
David Kashen is one of Silicon Valley’s top entrepreneur coaches. He is a successful entrepreneur who sold his first company, and he helped me frame what makes work-life balance particularly challenging for entrepreneurs:
Intermingling of Personal Identity and Business Well-Being. “Most entrepreneurs wrap their identity and their company fairly tightly together. It becomes like their baby. There is so much of an emotional attachment. As a result, their own well-being becomes determined by what’s happening in the company. Even the best companies have major ups and downs, sometimes on a single day.”
Fear of Failure. Entrepreneurs often have their life-savings wrapped up in their company. If the company goes down, so does their savings. “They tell everyone they know about the company because they want their support. Therefore, they become connected to the company. Therefore, there is a fear of public failure.”
Love of Work. “Entrepreneurs are passionate. They are inspired and pulled by a vision of the future they create in their mind.”
Rewarded for Getting More Work Done. Of course, there is the obvious reason to work hard; you actually get more work done. Furthermore, the rewards of the work go back to the entrepreneur more than they would for an employee. While productivity per unit of time may decrease at a certain point, overall productivity generally increases the more we work. At least it feels that way. The costs of over-work often build up slowly in the background and are easy to ignore at first.
The Workaholism Test
There are certain periods of life when the costs of personal sacrifices are much lower. There are also times in businesses that require extra work.
The purpose of this checklist is not to make working hard bad. It is designed to help you take inventory of your personal sacrifices and make better decisions. How long have you experienced the sacrifices below? Are your sacrifices more or less than the rewards you’ve received?
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Personal Relationships
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Personal
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Personal Money
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Recreating Yourself
Steve Mariotti (59) founded the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) in 1987 and helped build it into one of the world's leading youth organizations. To date, NFTE has taught 500,000+ low-income young people about entrepreneurship.
"Over NFTE’s 25-year history, I looked at my health as something secondary to building an international movement. I worked an average of 75 hours per week and only took a handful of vacations. I never got married, and I never had children. I thought family and work were mutually exclusive."
"I lost my heath three years ago — I almost died. That was a wakeup call! In retrospect, I deeply regret my work-life balance decisions personally and professionally. I don’t think about it just daily. I think about it hourly. I think NFTE would have actually been more successful if I had taken more time for my personal life."
Steve's story ends on a high note though. He has recreated himself by taking the following steps:
- Stepping down as President of NFTE and focusing on the areas of NFTE where he had particular strengths and passions.
- Developing a relationship with a higher power by praying, and meditating daily.
- Reading and writing six hours per day. Since his turnaround, Steve has written 90 articles for publications like the Huffington Post and received a book contract with Templeton Press.
- Taking care of his mental and physical health by eating healthy; exercising daily; and solving a longstanding sleeping challenge, which turned out to be sleep apnea.
- Being a better friend and family member by focusing on their needs first, ahead of his own and NFTE's.
- Starting a part-time business to help other young social entrepreneurs build their dreams.
Steve’s story serves as both a warning of the sacrifices entrepreneurs unknowingly make that never pay off and an inspiration for how we can all recreate ourselves at any point in our life. NFTE has never been in a better position and Steve has never been happier.
Michael Simmons is the co-founder of Empact, a global entrepreneurship education organization that has held 500+ entrepreneurship events including Summits at the White House, US Chamber of Commerce, and United Nations. Connect with him on Twitter (@michaeldsimmons) and his Blog.
