Never get too busy making a living that you forget to make a life

Like John Lennon said, life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.

You should read this short story: http://www.businessballs.com/stories.htm#businessman_fisherm...

:) I agree if its your own startup it probably demands as much attention as your personal life infact there is no demarcation. I by nature never had that demarcation even when I worked for others.

But you know when somethings go real bad, like in the above post or even in my own case, with mental states, emotions and relationships because of this work stress you would regret. So this is just a reminder to be on the back of the mind.

Man, that sounds familiar. I bet if you went back two years on this site, you could find comments from me that say almost exactly the same thing.

Anyway, as someone who tried making a company and is now happily "working for some guy who's going to get rich off your work", I want to say "Yes, but..." It can be incredibly rewarding to work flat-out on work that's worth doing. I wouldn't trade my startup experience for anything - not even the chance to have joined Google in 2005 and now be more senior than 85% of engineers there, or the chance to be employee #2 at DropBox.

But you have to remember that the median startup outcome is zero. Zilch. No value created. You're not "working for some guy who's going to get rich off your work", because nobody's going to get rich off your work. It just disappears into the ether when you find out that nobody wants it. And that's basically unavoidable, no matter how hard you work: you can certainly increase your chance of success, but you're not going to bring it over half.

The people I know who are most bitter about their startup experiences are those who are sure they're going to get rich. Because they don't, and then they realize they "traded in their twenties for a worthless pile of tech stock." Do a startup for the right reasons - either because you need to test your limits and see just what you can accomplish, or because there's a product that absolutely must exist and nobody else is making it happen. (The latter case is also the most likely to succeed, financially.) Don't do it because you "want to be an entrepreneur", "don't want to work for anyone else", or worst of all, because you "want to get rich".

I still think your missing the point. Sure you might like to program and design a product, and it might not be work to you.. but where does a significant other fit into this picture? What about having children? If you're spending all your time working on a company than you won't have time for these finer things in life.

> If, however, you're making a company and not a living, this nice little rule doesn't apply anymore.

The only rules that apply to your life are the ones you make or accept. So you are absolutely free to live your life as if the only thing that matters is success in your ventures or projects. You may think that since you are young, you will have plenty of time later (especially once you are independently wealthy) to live a more fruitful, meaningful life. That is a common misconception.

Just like you are learning to work better, you also have to learn to live better. You have to grow yourself at the same time as growing your business. Or else at age 35, you will be no different than a rich 15 year old who has 20 fewer years to enjoy life than everyone else.

Depending on your goals, hobbies, and capabilities, you can do a lot in your life in addition to your work starting right now. I cofounded two decently successful startups in last couple of years, am going to B-school like the article's author, and last week I finished building an aviary/animal-house in my backyard with my wife (for the curious, pics of the structure + animals here: http://chir.ag/gallery/aviary2009 ). Right now, I'm training for an ultramarathon and also working on a neat (and near-and-dear) side-project for a family member.

I'm not saying I'm awesome or better than anyone. I'm saying I could be single-mindedly pursuing one goal and instead, I've decided to pursue multiple goals at the same time, each with different levels of ambition and effort. Many of the goals are work/business related and many are not. There is no doubt that if I work on my projects 18 hours a day, I will get more accomplished in the short-term. But I have learnt over time that living a full, well-balanced life gives me a lot more value compared to the efforts I put in.

While there are a lot of successful people who dedicated their entire lives to one single goal, this doesn't mean if you try to widen your interests you won't be successful in anything. E.g. Ted Turner is a world-class sailing champ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Turner#Sailing

I try to model my life after Feynman, in the sense that, I will try to be very good in one or two things, and try everything else with light-hearted but passionate efforts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman#Personal_life

I feel that being a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath maximizes the utility I derive from life. I don't think this is the only way to go for everyone, but I do think the sweet spot for most lies somewhere in between single-minded dedication and being a Polymath.