STOP Ignoring Work-Life BALANCE | Find the TRUE Equilibrium

Balance!

Balance!

Balance!

Balance!

Balance!

Balance!

Balance! Balance!

Balance!

I get up super early generally— I have this thing where I like beating the sun up not just in terms of before the sun comes out I have to get up and how do I do it? It's just important to find balance and I try and do things really that I really enjoy doing. And a lot of times, you know, it's like in life, right? Life brings like drama, and you got to deal with this person and a funky relationship here and all these things. You try and just kind of balance them out as best I can.

It's, it's complex, right? And it's deceiving at times, you know, because people think the two equate.

Yes.

You know, to each other, and they don't, right?

You have a lot of money.

It's up here. And then I have a lot of happiness, but that doesn't mean that the two equate to each other.

Has your happiness risen at the same amount as your bank account?

No, that's the thing. They don't, they don't, they don't equate, or they're not tied in any way. They're not tied to each other. I mean, it allows you freedom and allows you to go places where you can smile and look at the sunset and things like that. That's what you choose to do and you enjoy to do, right? But there are a lot of people with tons of money who aren't happy because they're either they become a prisoner of their money, or they become so consumed with getting money that they don't allow time for happiness. Right. Life is about balance, right? You have to have some type of balance. You have, like, time for work and it's time for play. And if you don't allow these two things to coexist, you have an imbalance of one or the other.

Both Ryan and I are at times, um, I don't want to say envious, but we look at other people. Like, you take Kendrick. Kendrick is a rapper. Kendrick is in the studio right now. I guarantee it. He's not thinking about that the merch design that we have right now isn't fitting on a tank top the way that it should. It's true. And it's a blessing and a curse. We are the output in terms of anything creative. It's a music video, if it's directing, if it's writing a treatment, if it's being a character in the music video, we are everything. Same thing with their merch, same thing with just the ideas that we have full circle in terms of running a business. So that's taking away time that we could be working on our specific crafts, producing and rapping. So I think that it's a balance. We both enjoy business. We both enjoy being holistically creative. That's a fulfilling thing. I don't want to be in the studio every single day all the time. I want to be picking fonts. I want to be with Ryan color editing a music video. That's something that we both enjoy. So it's a balance. And I think that we wear enough hats that we can bounce around and be inspired. But it comes at a sacrifice.

If you're really going to be an artist with your own voice and you want to do different things and try, you know, not the standard thing, then, you know, the biggest balancing act you have to pull isn't really even being a good filmmaker. We'll just say that you have that. It's that balancing act between sticking to your vision, sticking to your voice, but not being some asshole who could only hear the sound of his own voice, you know? And that's— I mean, it's all right there. That's it. You got to be able to listen to people. You got to be able to hear what they're saying. But you also can't just— when the going gets tough, not give up on your vision.

Well, I always sort of test my boys and say, OK, I can be a stay-at-home mom. What do you think?

They're like, no, no, no.

We don't want that. So I think that's kind of funny in a way. But I think my boys know they're my first priority. And I think it's about how being a mother to me is the gift of the world. To me, but also being able to have a company like this as well. So I think it's really about just figuring out the balance, and it's always going to be a balance. In my opinion, having it all, and what all these people are talking about now, is a very individual question. I don't think that having it all means everything to the same person. So you have to figure out what having it all is for you. I certainly had to give certain things up Things that I didn't mind giving up, but my family and my work came first, and that's sort of finding that balance.

We had to incorporate in the philosophy of our company the values, the real value statement of what we're all about, the idea of work, love, and play. To be successful in life, you have to have 3 things in balance. If not, how would you run a 24-hour-a-day business if you didn't have a balance in your life? You follow me? I mean, you'd have a nervous breakdown if you were just a workaholic, wouldn't you? So I think to be successful, you have to have all three, and you'll be more successful if you strive for balance in your life. You'll make better decisions. Somehow wives really ground the hell out of you. You're not a big shot at home, and it's good. So Just try to remember, make goals every year for all three: work, love, and play. And it's not the— I know, it's just important. You'll make better decisions. Imagine when I went out and I told these people that love things, let's go 24 hours a day, what they would say to me. Paul, I can't work any harder. How do you expect me to keep this thing open 24 hours a day? Those are the wrong people. They had an idea of going to people-based people. And you can't lead other people unless you manage yourself. And if you don't look rested, nobody wants to follow a leader that's tired, haggard, and miserable. I mean, it's just not a prerequisite for leadership. Nobody wants to, I think Obama's done a bad job. The first month he looked too dour. I agree with, I voted for him, but I agree with Bill Clinton. He is not, Yesterday he was inspirational, but you don't want the President of the United States saying, "If you don't pass this legislation, you're gonna go off the cliff." Wrong. He's got to always be cheerful, always uplifting. That's what leaders are supposed to do. And then somebody said, "Well, you don't want it, you want him to be honest?" No. You don't always have to be honest as a leader. You could honestly say, "I know there's problems over there, but we're still gonna charge forward." You don't have to. Leadership is a different thing. It's not you open kimono every time. Remember, remember, work, love, and play. You'll be successful. You'll be a better leader. You'll be a more balanced person, and people will respect you more. So all you workaholics, drink some beer.

The hardest job that I have as CEO is blending or finding the right balance between like empathy and realism. Mm-hmm. And I guess what I mean by that is, you know, I have a few or a bunch of employees who work for me, um, who haven't been at startups this early, um, you know, don't necessarily kind of understand things break all the time and that sort of thing. But you have to, you know, still be empathetic about it, um, because you don't want them to give up.

Mm-hmm.

But you have to kind of offer a harsh dose of realism, like, this is the way it happens, right?

Yeah.

Like, this is real life. Um, so that's something that I've never had to really balance before.

Mm-hmm.

Because I was just playing business, right? Now I'm playing with folks' livelihood, their children's health insurance, right? You know, I have to think about things that I would have never thought. So this is the hardest job I've ever had in my entire life, but the most rewarding.

When you want to have balance, you will definitely have it. You can have it. Got it? Just this, I want to balance my life. This thought itself is good enough. You are already balancing. You are moving in that direction. Yeah, this question simply arises, how do I do it? You know you can do it. Ask yourself. Your consciousness will tell you, I am not balanced, I am missing out on this. Your consciousness will say. Then you listen to your consciousness. If you are attending to your work too much, your consciousness will prick, 'Hey, you are forgetting your family, your wife, your children, your husband.' Then you say, 'Okay, I will attend to them.' If you are attending too much, immersed so much in the family and forget about all other things, then your consciousness will prick, 'My God, what have I got into? What did I get into? Day and night I am just 'Immersed in this family affairs, I'm not being useful to the world. I had to do something, I had to pursue my cause, I had to do justice to my work.' That mind will prick, then you do that. But this wanting to keep balance in life, that very thought is good enough. It's It's like the fuse in the electrical system. You know, you know the fuse in the electrical system? Whenever electric current surges too much, the fuse will break and save everything else. Like that, that little amount of guilt must be there, like the fuse in the system. You don't justify your fault. But that little bit is okay to have, like the fuse in a electric— you know about the electrical system? In all that electrical board, there'll be one small box called fuse. So whenever there is imbalance in current, the fuse will burst and save the rest of the electrical system. Like that, in life, a little bit of guilt should is okay, but not too much. Like salt in the food, if there is too much salt, can you eat it? No. Got it? So wanting to have balance is good to have. If we were to run into rain conditions of this kind again, is there a better method, Ayrton, for us to look into how the race should be stopped earlier or more positively?

We shouldn't start.

But whose decision is that, Eric?

I think it's very hard for the officials to make such a decision because there is a lot of pressure, television all over the world, and it's difficult, we understand. But I think it's, in a way, it's our own fault. We should have started as drivers. If we just get out of the cars, stick together, and make a decision ourselves, then the race wouldn't start in first place. It's always very difficult to get everyone together. I experienced it myself 2 years ago, today again, because also we have a lot of responsibility to the teams and the sponsors that give us so much. And there are moments that we have to also try to give them something, but it's very difficult to find the equilibrium, the balance on making the right decisions at every single time.

I want to share with you a piece of advice that one of my mentors gave me a few years ago. He sat me down Actually, I was already sitting. Uh, he sat down next to me and he said, I get that you're struggling right now. I mean, at the time I was going through a problem and he said, Sean, you gotta remember this. Life is a delicate balance of on one hand remaining flexible. And on the other hand, enforcing your boundaries. And it was so simple that I almost discarded it. That advice just sounded trite, like, what? Flexible yet boundaries? And he further explained that you gotta remain flexible life is going to change on you. But you also have to enforce your boundaries. You got to let other people know and the universe know what you will and will not tolerate. And he said, if you get too— what was the words he said? If you get too flexible, you can be manipulated and walked on. If you get too much in the space of enforcing your boundaries, you'll become cold, hard and distant, and people aren't gonna wanna love you, work with you, hang out with you. You need a balance. And then I looked at my life, and I thought, well, where am I gravitating towards naturally? Well, my whole life I've had to remain flexible. I mean, I'm 3 feet tall and in a wheelchair. I have, you know, a condition that by the time I turned 18, I'd fractured over 200 times, something like going to the airport on a family vacation and I break my arm putting my jacket on, and now we can't go. You know, all these things happened in my life that forced me to become flexible, handle whatever comes at you. But when it came to enforcing boundaries, sometimes I wasn't strong enough, and sometimes I would tolerate things in relationships, in business partnerships that I didn't agree with, but I didn't want to rock the boat. Can you relate? But not everybody's like me. Some people get really good at enforcing their boundaries, making it very clear what they will and won't tolerate. They have a hard time, and you like, you move one little thing on their desk, or you change one thing about their life, or you need them to compromise on something, and they freak out. They can't handle uncertainty. They can't handle dealing with other people's schedules, whatever it may be. They just have a hard time being flexible with life. And you need to think about where are you naturally gravitating, because it's time to move yourself more towards the middle. If you've gotten really good at enforcing your boundaries, congratulations, that's awesome. You're not gonna be messed with, but maybe you're very hard to deal with. Or maybe you're like the most flexible person on earth. Everybody loves you. You're the nice girl, a nice guy, but you get walked all over and you have no self-respect now because you get manipulated and pushed in. Or maybe you were one and then swung the pendulum so far to the other side that you've lost your original space. The goal is to find that center point. It's to find that elegant, graceful dance, as my mentor called it, the dance between remaining flexible and enforcing your boundaries. So next time you're having a challenge with someone or in your own life, just by yourself, ask yourself, am I too strict with my boundaries? Am I laying down the law too much and making it uncomfortable for people to deal with me? Or am I too flexible? Am I too accommodating? Am I making all kinds of concessions and getting walked on or abused? Figure out what is it for you. Keep the two in balance and your life will flow.

Thank you guys so much for watching.

I hope you enjoyed.

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