Is It Cool For You And Your Startup Team To Take Vacations?

I once heard a CEO of a company that recently IPO'd say, "Work life balance? You're running a startup. You can't have work life balance.  Just forget taking vacations." 

I believe the thought process that you can't take vacations and have a successful startup is wrong. You can take vacations and have a successful startup.

I'll explain the right way to run your startup and take vacations in this short video. The video is titled, "Is It Cool For You And Your Startup Team To Take Vacations?"

Read the video transcript below:

Here's the question I have for you. Do you ever really get to take a vacation when you're a startup CEO? And should your team get to take a vacation in a startup?

Well, as you can see, I'm on vacation, so the answer has to be yes, but are you really on vacation when you're running a startup? Well, the answer is yes and no. You know, yeah. Today was a wonderful day. You know, we did some snorkeling. We did some relaxing, but in the morning what was I doing? I Was doing calls.

Now, why was I doing calls? Because I had to. It was part of my job. That's part of what I was doing. That's a part of being a startup CEO. You're never really on vacation because you always have things you have to do. That's cool. That's fine. That's okay. There's nothing wrong with it at all when you do that.

And you just have to accept that because it's part of the job. But what about your team? What about your leadership team? Do they get to just get away and do nothing?

Well, you know what? The answer is no. They really don't. You know, whether they like it or not, they have responsibilities. Here's my basic rule when I have a team and we're in a startup mode.

It's, you know what? You can go on holiday, you can go enjoy, but you have to have email connectivity, you have to have internet connectivity.

And if I need to talk to you, I have to be able to talk to you. Not In a moment's notice. You have to be reasonable about these things, but certainly in the same day you have to be able to do these things because if you can't, you know, guess what, the world doesn't stop just because you're on holiday.

That's the reality of it. And if your team can accept that, then guess what? They don't understand what it is to be in a startup. So that's the reality. So yeah, go take your vacations. Go enjoy yourself just like I am today. Go have fun because you know what? By doing these types of things, you have the energy for when you have to grind. And so will your team as well. But. This is a real important but. Is your team has to be ready at the right time. I'm Brett at www.brettjfox.com. Have a great, great day.

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