Work Life Balance…Ha!

Ok, so “work-life balancing” is a task that I am constantly trying to master every year, month, week, day, hour and 2019 is going to be no different.  

I have three kids, my son who is 23 years old and my 2-year-old and 6-month old daughters. And it is sad to say that my son and I hardly know each other, mostly due to the fact I have spent pretty much all of his life pursuing a career that has seen me living and working all over the planet. Having had to face some tough reality checks on how things have panned out with our relationship, I am now fully committed to doing things differently with him going forward, my two daughters and of course my wife, who obviously plays a pretty huge role in all of this.  

As my wife and I sipped fresh coconuts on the beach in Rio over the Christmas break, we reflected on our year and laughed, somewhat nervously, as we realised we may have taken on just a little too much, especially for people striving for that perfect work-life balance.  Seriously, what were we thinking?!?  Somewhat optimistically we decided that the same year of our second daughters birth we would also start another company, continue to develop and grow our existing companies, move house, all whilst still learning the nuances of living in a country where neither of us fluently speak the language. Throw in there a busy international work travel schedule and you really do have the makings of the perfect work balance storm! Thank the gods for our therapist, who we know found it all somewhat amusing at times! 

That said, in amongst all of this we did remind ourselves that we had chosen all of this, the kids, the startup, the companies, the moves and the work we do, so absolutely no complaints. And both of us constantly acknowledging how blessed we are to be in a position to take all this on.  

But… upon quiet coconut sipping reflection, it was too much, and it did take its toll on us all in some ways.  And whilst we are not heading down a Tom Cruise “Jerry Maguire” route and saying, less clients, we did make the New Years resolution to do “nothing” this year. 

And how’s that going so far you may ask? Well…first day back in the office last Monday I had to finish a little early to attend our nanny’s wedding, Bella was a flower girl, and we arranged the cake, first trip abroad for business meetings on the Friday and I am writing this blog after getting up at 04:30am in order to catch the 07:00 flight back from Düsseldorf to Geneva on Saturday morning so that I can get home early enough to help prep the house for the 30 friends and family coming tomorrow for Bella’s 2nd birthday party, I’d say we are off to a pretty good start! Ha! 

Going to be another awesome year and I am already looking forward to coconut sipping reflection in about 11.5 months time! 

Live, learn, legacy! 

CP