Do More Faster India, 2nd Edition

Theme Seven: Work–Life Harmony

Most of us who play this game called entrepreneurship have an amazing work ethic—seven days a week, from before sunup to well past sundown, and when we’re not working, we’re thinking about our business. It’s really hard to succeed as a startup founder if you don’t have this type of commitment. But in our experience, the best entrepreneurs also know how to disconnect and unwind. They find a balance, which we like to call “work–life harmony,” that works for them and it makes them stronger entrepreneurs.

We often work with young first-time founders at Techstars. Most of them have bought into the myth that you have to work constantly in order to succeed. We disagree with that; instead, we think you just have to work productively, and there’s a huge difference.

To work productively, you need to occasionally recharge your batteries. Some people can do this by just taking a week off once in a while. Others can do it by going on a bike ride. Work and life harmony take many forms because each of us needs to find our own way of achieving it.

Even in the hectic 90-day period that constitutes Techstars accelerators, we try to provide balance. We organize a few hikes, a bar crawl here or there, perhaps even a night outdoors for a movie at the Red Rocks Amphitheater. On the day before investor day we ask the founders to take the day off and relax. We’ve even been known to surprise the founders by bringing in massage therapists close to investor day. Everything ...