Work Hard, Play Hard

Rule # 4 from "The Entrepreneur"

January 26, 2005

When I told my friends that I was quitting my day job to go into business full-time, they immediately expressed support for my decision.  One of my closest friends, however, pulled me aside and told me that he has seen many entrepreneurs who, a few months after starting their own businesses, lost all their time for their families and ended up lonely beings in their isolated sandboxes. Sure, they made lots of money, but they lost their loved ones in the process too.  "Just don't commit the same mistake," my friend said.

I am writing this a year after I got my friend's advice.  My business, which is mainly web publishing and advertising, has done better than I expected.  I still spend a lot of time with my family, although I no longer see my friends as often as I would like to.  I guess I have managed to adhere to my friend's advice so far - I was balancing my business and my personal life. 

Once in a while, though, I ask myself if I'm spending enough time for my business (I devote about 10-12 hours to it every day, except Sunday).  I'm aware of the saying that if you work 16 hours a day, you'll reach your goal twice as fast as someone who's only working 8 hours a day. 

Many entrepreneurs live their lives by this maxim, always working hard with practically no time left for leisure and the family.  They hope that once their business is established, they can go back to their family and reap the fruits of their labor with them for the rest of their lives.  Unfortunately, it seldom turns out that way.

According to William Heinecke, the self-made millionaire who authored the book, "The Entrepreneur",  everyone must learn to 'work hard and play hard.' This is actually rule # 4 out of the 21 golden rules of running a business discussed in "The Entrepreneur."  Heinecke says that anybody who spends all his time with his nose to the grindstone will end up a very dull person, not a successful entrepreneur.  He also mentioned in his book never to take your family for granted, because they are your greatest asset.

While reading Heinecke's book, I sensed that he regrettably feels he did spend too much of his time on his ventures at one point in his life.  He said, "Be warned, it can be a lonely life...The sacrifices don't necessarily disappear as you grow older and, hopefully, more successful. I have missed my kids' softball games, birthday parties, and even their graduation ceremonies. Kathy [his wife] has coped magnificently, but if I do have any regrets about the entrepreneur's lifestyle it is the time spent away from my family."

It comes as no surprise, therefore, why his rule # 4 is "work hard, play hard." Talking from experience, he wants upstart entrepreneurs not to fall into the trap of spending all their precious time on their work at the expense of their loved ones.  The more I think about this, the gladder I become that I got this valuable advice from my friend, even before I came across Heinecke's book.  If not, and if I never got Heinecke's book, who knows where I could be right now?

One thing that caught my attention in the book are Heinecke's accounts of how he 'plays hard.'  He is into water-skiing, scuba diving, flying and sports car-racing.  The latter led him to  have a "garage at home [that] has seen its fair share of Jaguars, Corvettes, BMW's, and the like." 

Heinecke is therefore not like a typical millionaire in America, who, according to the book 'The Millionaire Next Door', is frugal and leads a simple lifestyle.  Then again, Heinecke is certainly not a typical millionaire. Unlike a typical millionaire, he has hundreds of millions of dollars, which makes collecting sports cars a modest hobby. You'll know what "The Millionaire Next Door" means once you read the article "What Millionaires Drive." 

Working hard and playing hard - it's a balancing act that we'll all have to learn to play for the rest of our lives.  It will give us and our family the life of comfort that we all aspire for, while nurturing the emotional and spiritual facets of our being human. 

If we play this balancing act correctly, we will not end up as one of those lonely entrepreneurs wondering in the twilight of their lives if missing all those birthday parties and graduation ceremonies was really worth all the money they earned.  They who wonder if there's a way to bring back the good times, memories of which they never had the chance to acquire, simply because they were too busy to do so.

See also:   Find a Vacuum and Fill It;   Do Your Homework;   Have Fun In Your Work;   

Use Other People's Brains;   Set Goals;   Trust Your Intuition;   Reach for the Sky;   Learn To Sell  

HOME