Some Thoughts on Work/Life Balance
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I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of professional service firms over the years, spending at least one full day and countless hours with each principal, and also interacting with thousands of the employees who make things happen at these firms. I say “privilege” because it’s stimulating to be around their energy, creativity, independence, humor, and “otherness.” I love my work.
Because I’ve been successful in that work, many people informally ask me questions about starting businesses, fixing businesses, and even buying/selling businesses. This might happen over a drink or a meal. One of the concepts that frequently surfaces is this idea that people ought to pursue what they love and success will follow. “Just follow your passion and the success will take care of itself.”
Bullshit. There are a lot of people following their passion who are on the edge of starving. They’ve oriented a work life around themselves that meets their basic need for stimulation, and in the process they’ve made all sorts of compromises on the fundamental business issues.
This fallacy extends to management, too. “If it’s not fun I shouldn’t be doing it.” That’s nonsense, too. Management and leadership are very hard work indeed, and if it’s high on your list to shun the things that aren’t stimulating, you’ll be ignoring some basic management and leadership duties that just plain aren’t fun. But are necessary.
