What I wish I knew 10 years ago

Earlier tonight I was in my driveway (King of the Hill style) washing our cars with my son and wife and remarked: “We’ve got some nice s*@#’”; It got me thinking about one thing I learned the hard way that I wish I knew ahead of time. So if I were to time travel and talk to the 21 year old self this is what I’d say:

“There is no such thing in life as work-life balance. Your work is your life, your life is your work and the more you try to split who you are on arbitrary hours of selfish focus on family, friends, job, etc the more you’ll fail at everything.”

I truly believe that. And it took a lot of out-of-office clarity to realize it.

Life is not worth living if it’s managed by an accountant on a spreadsheet. Think about it. I can’t imagine how hard my wife would kick me in the balls if I walked up to her and said: “I have 1 hour set aside for the intimate stuff. Let’s go, I have a hard stop at 11 to go do some yard work.”

I have been lucky to become very successful. Yes, it took a lot of hard work and dedication of a lot of people, but it could have failed as well. I’ve also been very lucky to marry a girl that loves me, to have a healthy kid, to hire some amazing people and fire/frustrate the right ones along the way too. But one regret I do have is that I think I would have had a lot more fun along the way if I didn’t do it all so hardcore.

So Hakuna Matata, thanks to all my friends and followers that read this blog, I’m working on something I think will be very helpful to many of you and tomorrow I start asking for input, so get your knowitall vitamins and start writing to vlad@vladville.com 🙂