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Balancing Work and Life

Written by: James Chan

Article Overview: A physician said to me in 1986, after I had first started my own business for three years: "There is more to life than working hard and making money." Now, I'm seeing his protege at the same office. My former physician passed on. But his words stay for me. I miss him.

Balancing Work and Life

Most of us become entrepreneurs for reasons of our own. We are trying to integrate our lives and our livelihoods in a way that fits us better than the ready-made careers offered in the employment market.
Some of us, for example, are looking for ways to spend more time with our families, even if we~{!/~}re working during much of the time we~{!/~}re doing so. Others seek to make their work embody their values, fulfill a personal myth, or express unique talents. Still others want to live in a particular place or in a particular way, and create their own businesses to support these aspirations.

These are aspirations that can be fulfilled. Parents, for example, are returning to their households in force, without giving up their second source of income. Houses are increasingly becoming places where goods and services are produced, not simply places on which money is spent. Even though much of this activity is made possible by the computer~{!*~}that icon of modernity~{!*~}we are, in some respects, returning to the pre-modern home in which work and family life were carried on incessantly, inseparably, and by every member of the household.

We may, however, underestimate how radical a change this is. Most of us have been accustomed to a clear distinction between work and family life. We feel that we have the right to reward ourselves for our labors, often by making our private lives and our leisure activities more elaborate. When there is no clear demarcation, work intrudes on private life at the most inopportune moments. Conversely, if we~{!/~}re not careful, the obligations we feel to family and friends can decimate our productive time.

Moreover, the very technology that makes it possible for many of us to work on our own~{!*~}email, cell phones, fax machines~{!*~}tends to make everything in our business lives more urgent. Our clients and customers are increasingly able to find us any time and anywhere, and they expect an instantaneous response. Even employees complain nowadays that they are never off the job. But for entrepreneurs, the problem is even more acute.

The very advantages of the lives we have chosen can often present some of the most pressing problems. It is good to be with one~{!/~}s children, but often their needs conflict with what has to be done. Many of us like the convenience and cost savings of working from our homes, but we must guard against the business taking over all our home life. In an ideal world, our businesses would all have rooms of their own with doors that can be closed when we leave to live the rest of our lives. More often, though, work invades personal space like a particularly aggressive fast-growing weed. We must be vigilant, or else we will be hopelessly entangled.

Finding the proper balance between work life and private life is something with which all independent business persons must grapple. Some believe in drawing a clear line between the two, but that~{!/~}s easier said than done. Not many of us can simply ignore a ringing telephone. It could be the next big opportunity. It could be a family emergency. We answer the phone and are often derailed from what we planned to be doing. To be able to ignore a ringing telephone, is, I have concluded, the beginning of sanity.

Many are looking for something even more elusive, an integration of work life with personal desires. This requires being clear about what we expect from our work and our life. Both need, in some way, to be compromised in order to reach the optimum result. It can be tough to find exactly the right mix.

Friends and family members raise other issues. Often they don~{!/~}t realize how different our lives are from theirs. Because they view houses as places of leisure, they confuse working at home with not working. They may also see the flexibility we seek as entrepreneurs as an indication that what we do isn~{!/~}t serious. When, for example, there is an emergency involving an aging parent, the self-employed sibling is often able to be first on the scene. But your employed brothers and sisters might also expect you to see the crisis through to the end. After all, they have jobs to return to, and they believe you don~{!/~}t.

At times, it seems impossible to find a balance between work and private life. Bear in mind, though, that this is probably why you went into business for yourself in the first place.

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Article Tags: aspirations, cell phones, demarcation, distinction, employment market, family and friends, fax machines, household, households, inopportune moments, instantaneous response, leisure activities, livelihoods, modernity, personal myth, private life, private lives, productive time, respects, talents



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