24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week. Junior investment bankers regularly work 80-90 hours a week. Many other high profile professions require the same level of commitment. Often those on the outside claim that working 80-90 hours a week is bad/wrong/terrible/silly/etc but we’ve spoken with so many folks who say working that much has been the best decision of their life – it allowed them to develop a deep and strong skill set far faster than would have been possible otherwise. In other words, by working 2x the hours, they were able to generate 5x or more the rewards. And depending on where you are in your career, investing heavily in your skills and competence can pay dividends for a long time.

Zeona McIntyre | Realtor

Work life balance has changed a lot for me based on where I was at in my life. When I started down the path of financial independence I had this one singular goal and I wanted to super charge it so I threw everything I had into it. Now that I have achieved many of my goals, I prioritize relationships and fun over more income producing activities. I now do meetings twice a week and have another day to get work done. I take mondays and fridays off to socialize, exercise and do self care Read more>>

Hugo Escobar | Student In Life

When it comes to work life balance, I look at the big picture personally and professionally. Balance for me has changed overtime in that I’m deliberate of what I need to do and what I want to do. This has allowed me to meet my goals and it’s saved me a lot of time. Having a vision and priorities allows me to juggle several things in my professional and personal life. My wife taught to be in the moment as in the past my mindset would be in the future. I learned to balance today and tomorrow and it’s really paid off. Read more>>

Holly Ross | Pediatric Occupational Therapist & Water Safety Instructor

Work-Life Balance! It is always the topic of the day. The topic of many audiobooks, that tell you how to split it up, where to use it, and how much is too much. Rewind to before I became a business owner and I thought about balance like these books. Clocking in and clocking out, making sure not to go over my hours so that I could have the appropriate time alloted off for the weekend. At that time, this worked for me. Work and life were separate and therefore balanced in my mind. Read more>>

Joanne Burney | Artist

At first the business was just a promise, based on a stockpile of drawings and ideas. As an artist, I would come home from a full-time, regular job and draw well into the night. I told myself when I reached certain goals I would start my own business. Concurrent to reaching those goals, I was among a large group who were “down-sized” from the company, and I took that as a sign. The balance of work then shifted to painting at all hours and fitting in life’s needs as necessary. Read more>>

Josh Latham | JayLay – Producer, Singer, Rapper, DJ

Honestly, it’s pretty crazy. Whenever I’m not at work I’m typically working on music. I tend to sacrifice most of my social life in order to continue to progress. I find myself having to make time specifically to meet up with friends, but most of the time there’s a business aspect tied in as well. For example, I’ll do something fun with friends but we talk about plans for audio or visual stuff. I also spend a lot of time going to shows just to build connections, network, and learn from people who are further along than I am. So overall I’d say my music really is my life. Read more>>

Jess Schmidy | Podcast Producer / Consultant and Accessibility Advocate

I think especially at the very beginning of owning my own business I thought that in order to be successful I was supposed to work and not really have a life outside of grinding to make as big an impact as I could. That very quickly led to a pretty serious bout of burnout, which made me take a step back and really think about why I wanted to work for myself in the first place – so that I had the freedom to create what I really wanted to be making, on a schedule that works for me. Since then I’ve put a lot more effort into finding some balance, and making sure I’m taking care of myself as a person and not just trying to work as hard as possible…because I’m actually more effective (and definitely more creative!) when I’m able to find that balance. Read more>>