It's a marathon, not a sprint...

Contrary to our society's romanticized vision of an entrepreneur's life, success takes a long time to come (if it ever does). While there are famous counter-examples, in the overwhelming number of cases, success takes years and even decades of hard work.

I post on this topic today because it's a particularly important issue to me, because it's come up quite a bit in the last six months in talking with lots of other entrepreneurs, and because of an article in today's WSJ entitled The Other Tech CEO's Find It's Not Easy To Keep the Faith (subscription required).

Not so many years ago, I myself was sucked into the myth of "work fanatically, to the exclusion of everything else, and you'll strike it rich, and then be able to take it easy". Through the school of hard knocks I have been reformed, and I now realize that the time to live the life I want is now. In Dave Matthews' words, "the future is a terrible place to put your better days." Just to add a fourth cliche-containing sentence to this paragraph, I'll add that I now ascribe to the "the journey is the reward" approach.

I still enjoy being an entrepreneur, and I am still known for a strong work ethic, but I no longer do it to the exclusion of other things in life that are important to me (primarily family, friends and fitness). I aspire to be an entrepreneur for the duration, and, Allah willing, my duration will last for decades. Therefore my tenure as an entrepreneur has to coexist with my other life goals, as opposed to temporarily supplanting them.

Work-life balance is an extremely common challenge for passionate entrepreneurs. I've known quite a few entrepreneurs, and the vast majority struggle with this. It is extremely difficult to master the balance between an entrepreneur's passion to change the world, his responsibilities to the various constituencies of his company, and his other life goals and passions.

I've heard some say that it's not possible to have a balanced life while being CEO of a startup, and I've heard others say that balance leads to better (and longer-lasting) stewardship of a startup. I'm out to be a poster child for the latter.

Commensurate with the importance and difficulty of mastering this issue, I think about it often. I would enjoy your comments and perspectives.

PS - I think that I first heard phrase "it's a marathon, not a sprint" applied to entrepreneurialism and startups by Terry Gold. Thanks Terry!