Can you relate to sacrifice?

I was recently asked the same question from Michael who is a business coach in the USA.

The context was that people who had been successful often had to make big sacrifices to get there.

I've been successful twice at building analytics consultancies.

I've also failed at stuff but those posts have their own stories!

So anyway I responded.

Yes I've made sacrificed but not about the important things. The sacrifice was time, but not away from important things.

I prioritise the things I enjoy.

Like spending time with friends and family.

So even in the midst of the most challenging times I had that bedrock to fall back on. Now I'm trying to build my own thing centered around helping people with data. The sacrifice for this will be lots of time.

I forsee a lot of situations when I would be relaxing binge watching some series, being taken up with building something.

But if I get it right it's a permanent asset. Maybe I'll spend some money as well to speed up the process if I can find a way that makes sense. But not at the expense of important stuff.

Not at the expense of time with the people I care about most.

I think a lot of people struggle because there is always this inherent hustle culture (and Michael agreed). In Finland where I live much more emphasis is placed on life balance.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Finland is one of the happiest places in the world across all measures. So I got lucky moving here.

My point? Life is short.

Enjoy it.

Make sacrifices and take risks, sure.

But never at the expense of the important others.

No one lies on their death bed thinking, “I wished I'd worked harder at climbing the corporate ladder”.

They might wish they spent more time enjoying themselves with the people that matter the most.