Finding Balance in Entrepreneurship and Life (Everything)

A friend recently shared with me that to be successful and maintain some form of sanity, entrepreneurs should pick three of: work, sleep, family, fitness, or friends. My friend was referencing what Randi Zuckerberg said in an Entrepreneur.com interview. Randi shared how she balanced being a wife and mother of two, entrepreneur, speaker, TV producer, author, and even singer. 

My friend shared this concept of picking three after reading my book. She referenced how the book went into detail about the practicality of entrepreneurship including how team dynamics play a critical role.

Indeed at Body Boss, each of us cofounders had very different risk tolerances and life circumstances. The intricacies of our personal lives affected our financial needs which affected full-time vs. part-time work on Body Boss. That would then affect our speed to iterate on the product as well as sell. All of this had cyclical and amplifying effects on each other. Again, failure isn’t caused by a singular event. Failure occurs after a multitude of decisions and actions that cascade.

To Randi’s point in the interview, she mentioned how her 3 picks would shift from week to week, even day to day as long as there was balance in the long-run. Perhaps her five choices are more tactical, but it reminds me of how at any point, we should have stability in at least 4 areas of California-Riverside’s 7 Dimensions of Wellness – social, emotional, spiritual, environmental, occupational, intellectual, and physical.

Challenges in somedimensions in life are good to keep ourselves engaged. However, trying to accomplish everything at the same time will inevitably cause quality in ALL areas to diminish rapidly. Instead, focus on a subset of areas at any given time and shift those priorities as needed to ensure balance long-term.