Table of contents
Introduction
Chapter One
Question Everything and
Find a Better Way
To Do Anything
Chapter Two
What Do You Want Most?
Chapter Three
Be Nice No Matter What
Chapter Four
It’s The Tough
Things That Teach You
Chapter Five
If You Don’t Like
What You’re Doing, So What?
Chapter Six
Seek Improvement Everywhere
and In All Things
Chapter Seven
Stand Out From The Crowd
Chapter Eight
Take People With
You On Your Journey
Chapter Nine
Work-Life Balance
Chapter Ten
If You’re Going To Do Anything,
Do It All The Way
Chapter Eleven
Give Back To Everyone You Can
Chapter Twelve
Heal Yourself With Your Mind
Conclusion
Chapter Nine
Work-Life Balance
There has to be a work-life balance, but that balance can be different for everyone. For some people, family first might mean 35 percent of the time, and for others, it could be 65 percent. Many people say you shouldn’t put work first. They don’t want to work so hard that they don’t get to see their family. My father was a tireless family man and a fantastic critical thinker. He traveled for work most weeks but rarely over the weekend, and when he was with us, we felt his love and pride for us. Even though he was working a lot, I always felt him there.
When I started Lead Concepts at the age of twenty-four (that would have been in October 1991), the apartment I lived in was right behind the building where I rented space for our first office. I often had trouble sleeping because the company was just getting started. There was nothing there, and we needed an office, phones, a computer, and a typewriter—yes, I said a typewriter. To say that, at that time, I had a work-life balance of 50-50 would be silly because I’d guess that getting the business started required 90 percent of my energy. However, I wasn’t married, and I didn’t have children, so even though I was working or thinking about work all the time, it didn’t create an imbalance. When people talk about work-life balance—and I have heard and seen it a lot on “The Gram” as young people call Instagram (this joke is for my kids) and on social media—people mistakenly act like the balance should lean heavily toward family time, but if you’re not making enough money, then that is not valid to me. Fifty percent to home and the other fifty to work is the perfect scenario, but in my opinion, it’s often unrealistic.
If you are working for somebody else, it might be okay to commit 50 percent to work and 50 percent to home—you might not move up in the company very quickly, but that’s not always true. But when you’re working in a business, you might be required to give more than 50 percent. If the company you’re working for begins to falter, it may require you to step up and give 70 or 80 percent of your time. That can be exceedingly difficult if you’re married with children and managing all of the kids’ schedules or if you have someone in your home who is sick. And in difficult times at work, the balance might have to lean toward work.
Similarly, when trying times occur at home, the balance may shift back to home. Neither one is right or wrong. In my thirty three years at Lead Concepts, things have changed, rules have changed, government regulations have changed, and if the products we were mailing weren’t working, we had to look for something different. At times, the company needed me to give 70, 80, or 90 percent. But I learned that if I communicated that to the people in my life, they would understand. In my case, I often ask for permission from my family to give more attention to work for the time being.
Hopefully, the shift in balance is a short-term change. What you want to be careful of, though, is working a lot but not being organized enough to make the time you spend at work productive. I’ve seen a lot of people who are very, very busy all the time but seem to accomplish very little. Guess what? There are books to help you with time management. There are podcasts on this subject. You can absolutely study that, get more organized, and identify ways to make sure that the time you spend at work is prioritized on the things that matter most on that day. That way, when you go to work, you know the two or three most important things you need to accomplish on that day, and you can get them done so that when you go home, you can emotionally disengage from work. You’ll know that you didn’t just go to work and put in eight hours for nothing. You went to work, and you got the things accomplished that you needed to accomplish. When you plan and organize your day the night before work and feel like you had a productive day at the office, you can go home at the end of the day and focus on your home, spouse, and kids and not think about work. The hope is that you finish the things you need to at work, and you don’t have to bring them home with you either physically or emotionally. And if you have an off day, which happens sometimes, reset for tomorrow. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Tomorrow will be better.
When I was a young man, I often felt guilty at home that I wasn’t working more, and when I went to work, I felt guilty that I wasn’t at home with the kids. That’s no way to live. It should be the exact opposite—don’t feel guilty at home, and don’t feel guilty at work. Give your attention and focus to each half of that work-life balance and communicate it with the people at home and at the office. If you have something big happening at home, someone is sick, or someone needs attention… Well, it helps if you communicate that at the office. So often, it’s honest and open communication that solves the problem. Let the people in your world know about what’s happening because they want to create success for you just as you do for them (remember what I said earlier—I like everyone and assume they want the best for everyone). I mentioned earlier that when I have financial challenges at the office and I might be unable to pay a bill or a creditor, I call and communicate that to them. That communication is always appreciated, and it’s the same thing whether you’re running a business or a household.
Remember, everyone is different, so you are not wrong in how you balance things out. But do yourself a favor and communicate with the people you love and the people you count on at work when your work life balance is about to go out of balance. Be intentional.
Table of contents
Introduction
Chapter One
Question Everything and
Find a Better Way
To Do Anything
Chapter Two
What Do You Want Most?
Chapter Three
Be Nice No Matter What
Chapter Four
It’s The Tough
Things That Teach You
Chapter Five
If You Don’t Like
What You’re Doing, So What?
Chapter Six
Seek Improvement Everywhere
and In All Things
Chapter Seven
Stand Out From The Crowd
Chapter Eight
Take People With
You On Your Journey
Chapter Nine
Work-Life Balance
Chapter Ten
If You’re Going To Do Anything,
Do It All The Way
Chapter Eleven
Give Back To Everyone You Can
Chapter Twelve
Heal Yourself With Your Mind
Conclusion