Expertise entrepreneur and investor Alexis Ohanian has rather a lot happening.
Along with constructing enterprise capital agency Seven Seven Six with a concentrate on software program and empathy, the co-founder and former govt chairman of Reddit is elevating daughter Olympia with tennis legend Serena Williams — and lately partnered with permanent-ink icon Sharpie.
Life’s about to get even busier for Ohanian quickly, as he is anticipating his second youngster with Williams on the finish of this 12 months.
So how does he handle all of it and strike a wholesome work-life steadiness?
Ohanian tells Entrepreneur he’d prefer to reframe the query.
“I do not assume it is about work-life steadiness,” he explains. “I do not assume anybody can actually accomplish that. It is not about balancing. When you’re chasing steadiness, you are implying, like Thanos, [that] you’d be capable to create one thing completely balanced. And the truth is work-life [is] by no means 50/50. You will by no means obtain wherever near that — nor must you.”
However that does not imply one space must be continuously prioritized over the opposite both.
“There are occasions in your life the place you have to to concentrate on the profession, the work,” Ohanian says. “There are occasions in your life when it’s essential concentrate on life. It is on a spectrum that is ever-flowing forwards and backwards.”
Ohanian likens that ebb and move to a relationship, noting {that a} partnership is rarely precisely 50/50. Typically you will come residence from work with simply 20% to provide whereas your associate has 80%, he explains, however the secret’s protecting communication open amid the fixed flux.
Associated: Work-Life Steadiness Is Easy. To Succeed at Work, Get a Life.
Rituals, routine — and the “shock and delight” issue
Earlier than getting married, Ohanian says he was perpetually in “CEO Mode” and “horrible” at discovering any semblance of equilibrium between his work and private life. He remembers pushing himself in his 20s, not eager about what he ate or how typically he exercised.
That modified when he entered his 30s and have become a father. “I used to be like, I want to alter all the pieces in order that I will be round for so long as potential for this toddler,” Ohanian remembers. “And that is been one of many superpowers, frankly, of changing into a dad.”
In the present day, Ohanian depends on the “self-discipline of routines” to maintain himself grounded, even when it is tougher on the highway. Proper now, that appears like beginning his morning off with a chilly plunge; he spends 10 minutes in an ice tank earlier than understanding, having a shower and having his first cup of espresso.
He additionally takes a while to write down down his day by day objectives in these early hours. These is likely to be private or skilled, Ohanian says.
When he’s at residence, Ohanian sits down for dinner together with his household at 6 p.m. each evening — “with out exception.” He additionally harnesses the facility of “shock and delight,” a tactic that may be simply as efficient throughout household time as it’s in enterprise.
“It is way more memorable whenever you break a sample of somebody’s expectations,” Ohanian explains. “These items we advise our founders to do, I additionally do for my daughter and my spouse — that is the opposite facet of the routine of the self-discipline. In case your default state has this sort of routine and expectations to it, you then additionally create the chance to do stuff that feels out of the extraordinary and completely different.”
Associated: 3 Methods to Shock and Delight Your Ecommerce Clients
Take breaks and discover actions that assist you to de-stress
Ohanian additionally depends on a number of useful methods relating to managing stress ranges. He likes taking walks in the course of the work day, typically making a cellphone name or two whereas he strolls his South Florida property, “a good quantity of area” full with chickens and “somewhat farm motion happening.”
He is additionally returned to drawing, a pastime he picked up as a toddler. Through the years, Ohanian’s used the ability to create a number of firm logos, together with Reddit’s. However immediately, the exercise helps him “de-stress” (his most well-liked implement is the Sharpie S-Gel pen). And he is been “thrilled” to see Olympia take to drawing as effectively.
“Even earlier than the Sharpie partnership, we have been doing these drawing courses the place I would hearth up YouTube — this was throughout Covid — [and go to the channel] Artwork for Youngsters,” Ohanian says. “It is this complete household the place they do drawing tutorials — the dad, youngsters, spouse, and so they draw collectively. I’d do these with Olympia. Olympia will get so fired up [by this] drawing class, and I deliver [Serena] into it, or if we’ve got grandparents over on the home, they’re going to do it too.”
Associated: 8 Methods to De-stress Your self at Work in a Minute | Entrepreneur
Ohanian acknowledges what number of sources he has and the way troublesome reaching a wholesome move state will be for different entrepreneurs and professionals juggling their obligations at work and residential. That is why he is a giant advocate for paid household depart; Ohanian needs all American households to have entry to it.
With the appropriate assist, some folks may even discover that having a household unlocks new ranges {of professional} ambition and success. Ohanian actually discovered that to be the case for himself.
“There’s this little human who you care extra about than the rest on the earth,” Ohanian says. “You truly do not care about the rest on the earth apart from this child’s notion of you. One other gear unlocks after getting that dose of humility, and it is nice. Like I mentioned, sarcastically, I believe it is made me so significantly better. I believe this chapter of my profession as a dad goes to make the earlier one seem like newbie hour.”