Money, power, prestige and all of the other trappings of a successful career in business are all well and good, but are they worth it at the expense of family?
Mohamed El-Erian, formerly one of the two faces of investing giant PIMCO (the other face Bill Gross left the firm yesterday), learned this lesson concerning the importance of a work-life balance the hard way through a simple hand-written piece of paper handed to him by his daughter!
In an article at Worth El-Erian described the moment that he came to realize that there may have been a side of life, namely family, that he was missing through his singular focus on business and career.
‘About a year ago, I asked my daughter several times to do something — brush her teeth, I think it was — with no success. I reminded her that it was not so long ago that she would have immediately responded, and I wouldn’t have had to ask her multiple times; she would have known from my tone of voice that i was serious.
She asked me to wait a minute, went to her room and came back with a piece of paper. It was a list that she had compiled of her important events and activities that I had missed due to work commitments.
Talk about a wake-up call.’
And while most of us are not managing $2 trillion in other peoples assets, everything in life is in some proportion and at some point this question of priorities concerning a balance between family and career will likely need to be addressed by all of us!
In difficult economic times like these of course the option of spending more time at home may take a back seat to earning a living in order to make ends meet.
But, at some point in the future after the economy has truly improved….
For those of us in our forties and fifties this quandary concerning balance may have best been described in a song written many years ago by Harry Chapin!
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Written by Michael Haltman, President of Hallmark Abstract Service, New York.
HAS is a provider of title insurance in New York State for residential and commercial real estate transactions specializing in the areas of New York City, Long Island and Westchester.
Remember that you have the right to choose your own title company (click here to learn more)!
If you have any questions you can reach Michael by email at mhaltman@hallmarkabstractllc.com.
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