Without Balance Even The Strongest Will Fall

Will running my last company, I came up with the quote "Without balance even the strongest will fall".  My intent was to articulate the delicate dance we must maintain as entrepreneurs between our work life and our personal life in order to stay motivated, happy and productive.  Too often I hear people talk about the process of starting your own company requiring 15 hour days 7 days a week for several years.  Tails of sleeping at the office or not taking a vacation for years are all too common among entrepreneurs.  It would appear that to successfully start and run a company, you need to forget your family, friends, hobbies and social life for several years.

In real life, we need our support network of friends, family and fun in order to tackle the seemingly impassable mountain we are about to climb.  Starting a company absolutely takes focus, passion and energy, but not at the expense of your mental health.  Further, we need connections with friends and family in order to be successful.  We will need to rely heavily on friends, family and fun to keep us motivated.

In my 15 years of entrepreneurship, I have found the highs and lows to absolutely magnificent.  Although the highs can be quite amazing, the lows may be more devastating than any you have experienced in your life.  If you are stressed, overworked with little or no connection to family and friends, these lows could be insurmountable.  On the other hand, a strong base of family, friends, hobbies or other outlets will allow you to move through these lows with minimal long term impact.  Personally, I have found a strong base to allow me to turn many seemingly low points in my entrepreneurial journey into life changing successes.  Having other outlets in my life allowed me to step back and reflect on the situation and gain the clarity I needed to move forward in a more positive direction.

As a final point, I want to tell a story about my days as a rower at Cornell.  In rowing, there are no superstars.  I rowed in a boat with eight other rowers and one coxswain.  It took all of us working in harmony to make the boat move fast.  I was in a position of leadership within the boat.  I never realized my impact until one day the rower in front of me turned to me and said “Tyler, when you have a bad day, the boat has a bad day.”  His comment hit me like a ton of bricks.  Until that moment I never realized the full impact of my leadership within the boat.  From that day forward, even when I was suffering, I had a positive attitude.  To my delight, we went on to win the championship that year.

The same is true for us as entrepreneurs.  When we are out of balance, our team is out of balance.  As leaders of our teams, we must stay in balance so that we and our team can address the seemingly insurmountable challenges we will face.