Do You Deserve Work Life Balance?

What does it take to build something important?

Work life balance is a topic heavily discussed in Silicon Valley. Every few weeks it becomes the topic of conversation on Tech Twitter / X. Rightfully so, people building startups care lot about doing impactful work and want to learn how to do so, and discussions like this are a byproduct of how much people care about their job.

So what does it really take to build a successful company - is it worth sacrificing nights and weekends? What does it take to build a successful life? Is it worth sacrificing your twenties for enlightenment in your thirties?

I’m relatively early in my career, so by no means have I figured any of this stuff out, but I want to share some of my thoughts so the next person reading this has a better idea than I do. Chances are you care a lot about doing great work, and I hope this helps you do it.

Optimizing Your Chances of Success

I’ve heard the phrase “optimizing your chances of success” countless times in SF. What does success look like? For a startup, this might mean how much money you’ve raised, how many employees you have, or have much revenue you’re generating. It’s important when you run a company one day you get these things right.

I think optimizing for success is the right framework, but we don’t take it nearly far enough.

In some ways, the most important enterprise we will ever run is the progression of our own life, and it’s incredibly important we take the decisions we make here seriously. The jobs we do, the friends we keep, and the time we spend are all decisions that we intentionally have to make on the long journey it takes to build a successful life, and it’s worth trying to optimize our chances for success here as well.

Depending on what your goals are, this might mean taking a weeknight off to go and learn how to dance, go on a date, or spend time talking with your family. It’s definitely possible to fail at building a large successful company, but succeed in building a great life. The counterfactual for this is as ominous as it is real: it’s possible to build large, successful company and live a failed life.

Working Hard

Nothing good comes easy, and there’s no substitute for hard work. I think that’s true both in business and in building a good life. It’s worth striving for success, regardless if it’s a great relationship with your parents or 1M ARR.

Being early in our career, it’s easy to see work as a short distance sprint, especially if you’ve only been in the workforce for a few years. Can you really grind non-stop in your twenties to relax in your thirties? Note that some of the best companies, like Amazon, Google, and Facebook, were built over decades. If your goal is to do your life’s work, it might be worth finding a way to do it sustainably, since you’ll be doing it for decades.

Looking Ahead

Work-life balance is sort of a misnomer. If work plays an integral part of your identity, then it’s just life. If you take that part of your life seriously, then consider every other part of your life, your friends, family, and personal satisfaction, as an extension of your work.

If you’re reading this, you are probably someone looking to do their best work, and do it over the long haul. It’s working taking seriously not just how our life’s work will be done, but to recognize that the most important thing we’re building along the way is our life itself. Just as serious it is to build a venture-backed company, we should take trying to live the best life we can incredibly seriously.

If the ideas in this article resonated with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts about it. Feel free to shoot me a message or email (svapnil @ woodside.sh) about it.