Know-how entrepreneur and investor Alexis Ohanian has so much happening.
Along with constructing enterprise capital agency Seven Seven Six with a deal with software program and empathy, the co-founder and former government 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 baby 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 wish 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. If you happen to’re chasing steadiness, you are implying, like Thanos, [that] you’d be capable of create one thing completely balanced. And the truth is work-life [is] by no means 50/50. You may 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’ll need to deal with the profession, the work,” Ohanian says. “There are occasions in your life when it’s essential deal with life. It is on a spectrum that is ever-flowing backwards and forwards.”
Ohanian likens that ebb and movement to a relationship, noting {that a} partnership is rarely precisely 50/50. Typically you may come house from work with simply 20% to offer whereas your accomplice has 80%, he explains, however the secret’s conserving 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 recollects pushing himself in his 20s, not fascinated by 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 vary every little thing in order that I could be round for so long as potential for this infant,” Ohanian recollects. “And that is been one of many superpowers, frankly, of changing into a dad.”
As we speak, Ohanian depends on the “self-discipline of routines” to maintain himself grounded, even when it is harder 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 figuring out, having a shower and having his first cup of espresso.
He additionally takes a while to put in writing down his every day objectives in these early hours. These is perhaps private or skilled, Ohanian says.
When he’s at house, Ohanian sits down for dinner along with his household at 6 p.m. each night time — “with out exception.” He additionally harnesses the ability of “shock and delight,” a tactic that may be simply as efficient throughout household time as it’s in enterprise.
“It is rather more memorable while 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 aspect of the routine of the self-discipline. In case your default state has this type of routine and expectations to it, you then additionally create the chance to do stuff that feels out of the strange and totally different.”
Associated: 3 Methods to Shock and Delight Your Ecommerce Clients
Take breaks and discover actions that assist you de-stress
Ohanian additionally depends on a couple of useful methods in terms of managing stress ranges. He likes taking walks in the course of the work day, generally making a cellphone name or two whereas he strolls his South Florida property, “an honest quantity of house” full with chickens and “slightly farm motion happening.”
He is additionally returned to drawing, a pastime he picked up as a toddler. Over time, Ohanian’s used the talent to create a number of firm logos, together with Reddit’s. However at the moment, 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 nicely.
“Even earlier than the Sharpie partnership, we have been doing these drawing courses the place I would fireplace 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, children, spouse, they usually draw collectively. I’d do these with Olympia. Olympia will get so fired up [by this] drawing class, and I convey [Serena] into it, or if we’ve got grandparents over on the home, they will 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 movement state could be for different entrepreneurs and professionals juggling their obligations at work and residential. That is why he is a giant advocate for paid household go away; Ohanian desires all American households to have entry to it.
With the best assist, some folks would possibly even discover that having a household unlocks new ranges {of professional} ambition and success. Ohanian definitely discovered that to be the case for himself.
“There’s this little human who you care extra about than anything on the earth,” Ohanian says. “You truly do not care about anything 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 stated, paradoxically, I feel it is made me so significantly better. I feel this chapter of my profession as a dad goes to make the earlier one appear like beginner hour.”
