Jason Nazaar, co-founder of DocStoc.com has a post about how he and his family have suffered due to his startup. His health and his relationships have all had a rough time since he started his company.
A few quick questions:
- Is it worth it? Based on the odds of hitting it out of the park, is it simply worth the effort and time?
- Can you successfully balance a family and a startup? What if you have kids?
- How do you strike a balance?
About nathan kaiser
Including your spouse in the decision to jump head first into a startup is not only prudent – it is vital to navigating high stress / brutal hours that you will encounter at along the way.
The top 3 things I try to do to maintain balance?
1. Set expectations properly. If you say you’re going to be home by 8pm. Be there at 8.
2. Don’t look at your iPhone for the first hour after walking through the door. ‘Being home’ doesn’t mean working from home.
3. Dedicate a portion of the weekend to being off the grid…and if you have kids, give them your full attention. Giving them completely focused time is 10x better than pseudo-conversing with them while checking e-mail.
How am I doing? Was about a C+ in 2008. B/B+ so far in 1H09. Actually, my wife and kids should be grading me.
That’s funny, I just wrote about the same thing, saying that it’s not only worth it but inevitable:
http://blog.asmartbear.com/blog/sacrifice-your-health-for-your-startup.html
You have to dig deep and decide what’s important to you. There’s no correct answer, but you need all your actions to be *consistent*.