An Entrepreneur or the Family Person?

sinha

Came across this brilliant piece by Jeff Atwood, Founder of StackOverflow. He is moving on from the company he founded:
"For a long time, work was my only thing. I worked evenings, weekends, and Christmas. At those rare times when I wasn’t at work in body, I was there in spirit, unable to speak or think of much else. I wanted so badly to climb the mountain that I stopped asking why I was doing it.

I admire Steve for the mountains he climbed. At the same time, I wonder if he missed the whole point, becoming the John Henry of our time. He won the race, but at what cost?

Me? I may turn out to be a failure in business, but I refuse to fail my kids.
For all the success and amazing accomplishments of Steve Jobs, in the end, nothing could save him. Death can come at any time. And I realized that if I found myself on death’s door, I would regret deeply not having spent more time with my kids when they were…well, kids"

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/02/farewell-stack-exchange.html

So who are you? An Entrepreneur or a Family person? Are they mutually exclusive?

Gaurav

"The entrepreneur’s dilemma: Maintaining friendships. Building a great company. Spending time w/family. Staying fit. Getting sleep. Pick 3.”
– Randi Zuckerberg

This one leads me to believe that you can balance them. Of course you won't spend the same kind of time with family that you do in a 9-6 kinda job, but you can still try to spend quality time. And there will be times you may need to let family down, just make sure you don't always do that or always take them for granted.

Then again, i've just recently turned entrepreneur and things haven't heated up yet, so it's easy for me to talk.

Sameer

V good question. Got me thinking hard. Damn, I don't really know the answer....!

NikitaUpreti

I think its always about "that dream" for an entrepreneur and like the saying goes - for everything you love, you have to pay the price. So most of the times for an entrepreneur, business becomes the most personal thing in the world (sometimes at the cost of family because they are the ones who understand what would being able to full-fill "that dream" mean to you)

VivekDurai

I like Steve Blank's take on this -

http://www.udemy.com/lectures/the-entrepreneur-and-the-family-9046.html

Prabhuav

Your genius idea or your business empire aint gonna be there for you. Family will. Be there for them. They are waaaay more important work.

Sameer

@Prabhuav Entrepreneurs, somehow, aren't particularly concerned about the business/product they build being there for them, etc.

Varadraj

While chasing "that dream" u will have to sacrifice lots of things and people who will stand by u are ur family. Outta all the success stories i have read, the successful entrepreneurs always had rock solid support from home.

So its a Give n Take. Your Family will give u unconditional SUPPORT, you have to reciprocate by giving them your TIME...

saipothuri

its all about how a person organize his tasks, we are different and we do different, practically i saw people who spend only business hours for business and rest with family. some work hard day and night and for days and months and for years finally came up with the business and you know once business starts growing up, you actually start putting more and more time on business.. finally its like no time spent for family

on other side, suppose i work hard and i created a product and then a company and then its branches and services etc etc etc.. finally what i am going to get..some 100 million dollars or BP, SUGAR, OBESITY, GAS Trouble. any thing.. i am entrepreneur and according to my business i schedule my tasks. and for everyone according to there business they arrange the tasks and thats how we call it Time Management, Task Management am i right ?

Thanks

Sai

Kannan

Being a father of a 5 yr old and also finding that my wife also has entrepreneurial instincts, starting up or even joining a startup/early stage venture would be quite hazardous, no :-(
You guys encourage as well as scare folks to the max, I tell you :-)

sinha

@Kannan - that's the reality of life. I mean, follow your dreams but ensure that you aren't sleeping :D

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