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After Launch, Work-Life Balance Remains

Launching BrazenCareerist.com was my first professional experience of timelessness, where time starts to become irrelevant and that feeling of normalcy that used to keep life balanced becomes harder and harder to get a grip on. Something really interesting happens when you’re completely absorbed by a project like that one. You rarely look at the clock, your schedule becomes increasingly erratic, and if not for a DVR (and of course, the writer’s strike) you miss some damn good television.

So here we are — all systems go for the BC team. But now that we’ve launched, should we expect that our day-to-day lives are going to return to normal? Not a chance.

Finding a good balance between frantic fire-fighting and numbing normalcy is always going to be a struggle. So the question is how do you establish equilibrium? Honestly, there’s really no great answer. It’s all about priorities.

Normalcy is irrelevant to an entrepreneur. You do what you have to do to get where you want to be. And hopefully, you’re able to have some fun along the way.

But take our friend Travis, former proprietor of YoungGoGetter.com, for example. His entrepreneurial lifestyle led him to become a self-proclaimed “creature of the night.”

While the rest of us were winding down around 7 p.m. and getting ready for prime time T.V. or a quick drink at happy hour, he was eating breakfast and preparing to pull his “darker” version of the daily grind.

I can’t imagine my life like that. In fact, after reading his post about it, I gave it a shot, but failed miserably. As Travis points out, you have to be pretty abnormal to navigate that terrain. And I just don’t fit the profile.

So what do I do to get a grip? I try to balance two very different mentalities. Some days, I tell myself “I have to get this done, no matter what.” And then others, I say “Hey, this isn’t going anywhere, let’s get a beer.”

Balancing your state of mind is just like deciding when it’s okay not to go to the gym. And because we all deserve a break, you shouldn’t feel bad about not going sometimes.

So tonight, in honor of our lack of sleep and hardcore work ethic while launching the company, Healy and I are headed out for a few drinks at the pool hall with our friend Dale. And I don’t feel an ounce of guilt.

Working your ass off is standard for any entrepreneur. But if you’re going to work twice as hard, then when you have the chance, you better play twice as hard as well.

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