balance asks for more balance

It is Monday evening of Memorial Day weekend, which first off deserves a mention to all the men and women who have served and died in military duty to the country. For me, I almost took three days off in a row. I did compose and send an important email to a customer on Saturday, but it only took about 15 minutes. Since Friday night, I went rock climbing, did yardwork, saw Hangover 2 with friends, went to a dance party, went rock climbing again, and today took a 4-mile hike in Rocky Mountain National Park with my wife.

I thought how much I enjoyed these days off. I was wondering if it will make me more productive when at work because I took this time to recharge. There are plenty of theories out there to support that. Sometimes I think it only makes me want to spend more time recharging. I am for sure more productive while working if I regularly keep balance in my life. And keeping balance does in fact mean working less hours. I don’t mean less than 8 hours a day, but not 10-hour days six days a week.

I’ve got a lot of stock options at Symplified. I’m not a significant shareholder or anything, but still quite vested in the company and the value of those options. And one thing the company culture has dictated is if each person works more, then we can hire less people, pay out less salary, and make the Venture Capital money we’ve raised last longer. This will then lead to waiting longer until having to raise more money, which means the stock options will be worth more. That’s all the long way of saying, if I work longer hours now, my potential future payout will be bigger.

For the past few years at Symplified, I have been a bit of a work-aholic, as my lovely wife reminds me. I’ve spent less time exercising, only enjoyed a little more than required time with the kids (and not enough with my wife), less time doing things with friends, and more time working. Today I started to think that I want more fun and balance now, even if it means my potential future payout may be smaller.