Presumably I am old now and my picture looks wise enough that ppl seek advise ( I am shitting bricks as I write this, I fear, my mentors will see this and say "Wow! He thinks he is good enough to advise ppl now !")
...but heres is something that i learnt from personal experince and my limited exposure - this is my limited , perhaps ill informed interpretation of my algorithms and causality.
A young 25+ executive asked me (attached picture )
here is a condensed response
1. Work quality over office hours:
"Work delivery should be the focus, not office hours. Prioritizing important tasks over urgent ones is ideal."
2. Early career expectations:
"Early in my career, I worked extreme hours to meet perceived expectations."
3. Career progression and focus shift:
"Now, I'm judged on output, not time. I can flex my schedule as needed." but none is mistaken I have a reputation that when the time comes I can go sleepless at work for weeks ( I slogged to build this reputation and to prove to myself I can go as far as needed, and, when needed, I still have it in me)
4. Importance of flexibility:(Should I not spend extra hours at office ?)
"In my fast-paced industry, rigid time limits can be counterproductive. Flexibility is key to meet varying demands efficiently."
5. Overcoming workplace perception issues:
"One trick I did was, to do what I would do at home, in office, after my work was done." This approach satisfied both those who measured by presence and those who valued effectiveness. I did what I wanted , I did my work well , I looked like "He is always here in office" - I said to myself "its only a shift of place".
On comparisons: "When you start comparing yourself with the best in your age group or position - things change."
6. Career growth pattern:
"3 month suck badly
3-6 months manage with effort
6 - 12 months manage daily work easily , but work on next level , experiment
12- 24 month do great work set new benchmark
after 24 months new challenge"
7. Personal development strategy:
"I have a ritual. Each new job, new field, I buy 3 books- the best ones I can find in 15 minutes-recommended on amazon -on that subject. I Buy them, read them in first 3 months. Understand what they said in 3-6 months apply and learn. Master it in 12-24 months."
8. Key takeaways:
"Extraordinary results happen if and only if you put extraordinary efforts - and it's tough, which is why it's extraordinary."
"We are the average of the 7 people we call friends or working group."
"Masters are those who suck but show up everyday to suck till one day they look back and are ahead of everyone else and don't suck any more."
"If you feel you are with dumb people it's because you are dumb to put yourself there and measure using them - put yourself with outstanding people - you will rise."
I hope some of it is useful - and ...To my mentors -
Madam / Sir, a young kid asked me I had to give them something - this is my way of paying it forward because you did it for me
Cancel your life for a while to get the core of what you're trying to solve right. the first period is so sensitive and the key is to get it right. then once you know your on the right track. Subscribe partially to your life again. But the mindset must be, your doing this once or a few times in your life. its not forever. so you can afford to give up a lot to gain a lot later. and ask friends and fam to help you, again not forever, the spotlight is on you for a small pocket of time, you can pay it back to them later.
@sentry_co totally agree.
you just can't limit your attention while starting a new business, and your thoughts about it.
For me right now is just work, day in and day out, nothing else. literally, nothing.
To be honst, I don't balance anything. I wish I could, but I am not able to do that yet. If you are founding your first StartUp you might not be able to have work life balance till you get to the point where most of your processes are up and running, once that happens you start to automate things and delegate other things and in process of trying to achieve that goal, your most important goal should be not to burn out, till your StartUp achieve traction and you get enough clients so that you can pay the bills and focus on growing and figuring out how to optimise things to get some free time for other important things whether for applying more growth hacking or for your personal life, but please try to not burn out and stay healthy, your health is your only caplital in the beginning and will still the most important capital in all stages of your business, if you are not suffering mentally and physically you will suffer from losing very important opportunities and you die to find out how to get out of this struggle and you might struggle for so long without anyone knowing.
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Hey Casper, I need to tell the truth. It is hard to balance base on my experiences over the years.
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To balance work and personal life when running a business, set clear boundaries, prioritize tasks, delegate when possible, and schedule personal time just as you would for business meetings.
Interesting question! I think that the truth is that you cannot always balance. I believe that you have to make time for personal life as well. In my case, I would always have important things to work on for growing my business but by prioritizing them with a critical view, this allows me to also include personal life activities in-between.
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