Cut yourself some slack…
Advice from one of the world’s richest men on earth...
In his early years, he would sleep in the office to get things done.
He was in teen years. Because he is lanky and nerdy, he looks younger than most of his peers.
It was no wonder that when he slept under the table in his office to work on some project, the receptionist next morning reported to the police that there was a kid sleeping in the office.
It turns out, he was the founder of the company.
In his adult life, he didn’t believe on weekends and vacations. He would look at the parking lot at his office window. He would take note in his mind the people who leaved early.
He would take note if people put overtime work.
He really drove himself and his collogues really hard back in the early days of his company.
But today, in a commencement speech, he encouraged graduates to take a vacation, recharge and slack a bit.
“Take a break when you need to”, Bill Gates advised.
“You are not a slacker if you cut yourself some slack”, Gates continued.
I was watching the Netflix documentary the Goldin Touch. It was a story of Goldin, a guy who made his fortune in the auction industry.
His company would find people who have rare collectible things to auction such, as Michael Jordan’s uniform or Lionel Messi’s soccer jersey.
Goldin visited a guy from Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rican owns a mansion with a beautiful view of the city and the waterways.
He led Goldwin to his private collection of memorabilia. To me, it looks like a museum. When Goldwin ask how he do it in life, of making his empire and having his private collection.
“I’m a handworker”, he said.
The harder you work, the luckier you become…
Now I always wondered how to really work hard.
The answer probably came from podcast I was listening to before. One of my mentors once said that if you show up more often, work hard more often, your life will be luckier.
I would see my mentor drop a podcast in the middle of a long weekend and would explain, “I did some work in the office to move things forward. Put some of the work, even during the holidays, I am ahead of the competition”.
That was a light bulb moment for me.
I work, but I think not hard enough, cause I’m not a millionaire yet. But I’ll put in the work, even on holidays (not all day though so I can still have time with family).
Maybe go to the beach after an hour of work on the holidays?
What do you value in life?
This is a powerful question that I learned from the Marketing Secrets podcast. The host Russel Brunson said:
“I value hard work and my time with family”.
He explained that there are entrepreneurs that would rather take “456 days of vacation leave but still successful”.
He explains one of his successful entrepreneur friends, who would take the least amount of time for work. His friend is very successful in business too, but Russel said, that’s not my value. I value hard work.
That’s not my identity, Russel is basically saying.
On the other hand, Russel value his time with his family too. He would work with his family always around.
Then it dawned on me that working hard is a value, is an identity. Spending time with your loved ones is a value too.
It’s not either or.
It’s not you work hard and let your family clean the mess. You can work hard, with family time as a priority too.
“You are not a slacker if you cut yourself some slack”.
