Work-Life Balance: Is It Possible?

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Lately I have been thinking a lot about work-life balance. My wife is due with our second child a week or so after our first turns two, less than three weeks away. Then I read this blog entry by Guy Kawasaki, the former Mac evangelist, venture capitalist and blogger, that both amused and scared me. You can read the article here.

One of my great fears is that my kids are going to grow up while I work. I have entire years running Infinity Softworks that I don’t remember. But now the stakes are higher. I miss them growing up and they will either 1) spend their life in therapy because their father ignored them or 2) kill and rob people, ending up like some movie thug, because their dad wasn’t actively involved in their childhoods. An absentee father, they will tell the judge, made us do it — the robbery, the drugs, all of it.

At the same time, I am the sole income earner in the family as my wife stays home with the kids. She’s good at it and has tons of training. She was a certified teacher and taught pre-K through 1st grade for years. So how can I afford not to work as much as possible? Leaving my family on the streets is as bad as the whole drugs and robbery thing.

Conflicted, you say? Definitely. So my post today wasn’t an answer to the title; it actually is a question, albeit maybe a rhetorical one. I have been thinking about this for months now, coming to no conclusions.

I have heard from much wiser people than me that recognizing the fact that there is this issue is half the battle. Well, I recognize it. Now… what to do about it?

How Not To Win In the Market

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I wanted to sit down this morning and write an article about Microsoft and Yahoo! merger and talk about why I had little faith in its success. I think it is doomed to failure because, generally, most companies don’t beat other companies when they play the game the same way.

For years, Microsoft was the hundred pound beast. You don’t create general-purpose software businesses or operating systems because Microsoft will most likely run you over. Now, Google is that beast. If you take on Google head-on, you are bound to lose.

The problem is my good friend Michael Mace wrote the article I was going to write before I wrote it. You can find it here.

Michael’s article is important for all business applications, not just for this merger. The lesson is to play the game in a slightly different way. When Microsoft decided they needed an email client, they didn’t just develop a client like Eudora did, they added integrated contacts and calendaring and automatic appointment creation and joint scheduling that Eudora didn’t and wouldn’t have. Microsoft changed the game.

Google did the same, taking what everyone else considered value-less and turned into mega money in just a few short years. Now Microsoft and Yahoo! will combine, thinking they can take on Google head-on? Good luck.

Island or Peninsula?

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I wrote an entry a couple of weeks ago about how industry events are a thing of the past (see article here). And then today I am reading Guy Kawasaki’s blog and he references an article and study that basically says the same thing!

The basic premise of all of this: big industry events that put you in touch with industry insiders don’t have the effects you would expect.

The article itself covers the role of Influencers, those that get others to use and try a product. Think Right Guard and beer commercials with pro sports figures. The question is, does the tipping point (an influential and horrible book by Malcolm Gladwell) with influencers really occur or is a myth that doesn’t really play out?

The research done by Duncan Watts, formerly of Columbia University now at Yahoo! Research, shows that if a trend is going to occur, it is going to occur, no matter who is involved. Guy Kawasaki then underlines my comments about CES, the big tech trade show, by saying:

“Spend less time and effort on industry events and other focused PR and marketing that involves sucking up to journalists, analysts, and experts. Spend more time and effort pressing the flesh of real customers. Typically, you won’t meet too many customers at a Ritz Carlton.”

Well… that pretty much sums it up.

Sometimes I write these blog entries and it seems like I am living on some deserted island somewhere. And then I read something that someone said later that matches up and I say to myself, “Hmm.. it’s not an island! It’s a peninsula!”

Life at Infinity Softworks: 11 Years Come and Gone

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I was half way through my senior year in college when I knew I didn’t want to work in accounting, my major. I had a minor in computer science and had programmed since I was 13 but it wasn’t the same as majoring in it. I picked accounting because I figured 1) it was a good grounding for life in the business world and 2) I could always get a job in it.

In essence, I came out of college not knowing what I wanted to do. As I have written about in the past, a friend of mine was working for a software publisher locally who had an interest in PalmPilot applications. I wanted to see if computer science was better for me and signed on to write a couple of applications.

I remember feeling lost most the time. It was so different than anything I had ever done before from a programming perspective but in those first few years I wrote our original financial calculator, FCPlus Professional, a couple of dedicated apps for loans (Loan Pro) and leases (Lease Pro), and personal finance and investing applications (WalletMate and InvestMate). In all, it was five applications encompassing nine different releases over the course of three years.

Starting and running Infinity Softworks intrigued me but it wasn’t until recently that I put my finger on why. At the time, I thought it was the potential to make lots of money, but frankly money in and of itself has never been a big motivator for me. I thought it was the ability to run my own show. I like that but many times over the years the headaches have far outweighed the benefits. I thought it was the versatility, writing code one day, answering support another, building partner relationships on the third. But doing all of these things means I never really get great at any one or two, just okay at everything. And doing all the stuff I don’t love is a drag.

I have come to realize what I love to do is invent. I love the thrill of the hunt. I love aligning the right people and companies to make something successful. I love creating products that excite people and make them want to use the product. I love great design and can spend hours thinking about the details of customer interaction. I love talking to people about how they use products, watching them use it, and trying to get a good gut feel for what will make a product successful or not.

Over the years, Infinity Softworks has released many products with many more versions. Some have been highly successful and some have been a waste of time and resources. Mostly I have had a hand in design and direction but not actual coding as I was kicked out of the developer room many years ago.

January marks the 11th anniversary for this little company, quite an accomplishment if I do say so myself. It’s good to know that I am still learning something about the business and myself after all these years.

Lighter is Better

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I’m a laptop aficionado. I bought my first laptop in 1999 and have used one ever since.

I see laptops as an extension of myself. I have been using computers since 1986, age 13, and have almost always had one with me ever since. I like the idea of being able to take it with me, have it on a trip, read the news or look something up quickly. My first computer was an Apple IIc, as close to a laptop as you could get in those days. Only once have I owned a desktop system.

The problem is that laptops seem to keep getting bigger and heavier and, to me, that defeats the purpose. Do I want to carry 10 pounds on my back? Need a suitcase to carry it? I don’t think so. Not only do I prefer lighter, but I also bike commute to work. The 6.5 pounder I have today doubles the weight of my bike!

Frankly, I think I am a pretty intensive computer user. I write code so I need compilers. I do video editing, listen to music, work on the web, use Excel, Powerpoint, and Word.

I looked at a Dell laptop but, frankly, am sick of Windows and won’t use Windows Vista. So I waited to see what Apple announced. I’m looking forward to playing with the MacBook Air.

What do I like? Apple’s OS, light weight of the machine, screen size and back-lit keyboard (I find I work in the dark some). What is a potential concern? No removable battery, no internal card reader.

Surprising answer, even to me, about the card reader. Apple hasn’t included a CD/DVD burner in this thing but it is the card reader I care about? Well, I find that I need to move photos and video from my camera to the computer more than I ever use DVDs or CDs. And as far as storage is concerned, networking is cheap, bandwidth is affordable, hard drive space is ridiculously abundant. I do so much on the web now anyway.

Maybe I’m unique in these ways but I don’t think so. I remember people bitching when floppy drives disappeared. I think, to a certain extent, CD drives are the same… If the networked drive works as indicated then I may have everything I need.

Will this be my first Apple computer since 1994? We’ll see.