Richmond Dinh argues that launching a business requires intentional imbalance, not balance. Founders may work 7 days a week and 15-20 hours a day during the startup phase, followed by recovery periods. The conventional 5-day work week doesn't match the sacrifice needed to build something new.
Chapters
Listen, everybody's saying work-life balance, work-life balance, work-life balance. No, balance is for bicycles. If you're working, you should think about life. If you're living, you should be thinking about work constantly, all the time. Confused? That means you're growing. You want balance? Buy a bicycle. You want success? You need work-life confusion. I actually agree with him. I hate the idea of how we're sold that you need work-life balance, but also at the same time, you're sold that you need to achieve, become successful, make as much money as you can, and have your own home. Those two things do not work hand in hand. There's no way you can work 5 days a week take 2 days off, work 5 days, take 2 days off, take a 1-week holiday, then take 4 weeks of annual leave and expect to become successful in your business. Now, am I saying you shouldn't have any rest or breaks? No, that's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is that you need to intentionally live your life out of balance because there are seasons where you have to go all in and seasons where you can take a break, but you don't do it at the same time. So anytime you are starting a coaching business or any business for that matter, there is an infancy period where you have to spend the hours to get it up and running. And that means you need to work 7 days a week, sometimes 15, 20 hours a day to get the business up and running. There is no balance in that season and there is only sacrifice, and that's the consequence of starting a brand new business. Imagine telling a mom that just had a brand new child to take 2 days off from being a mom. It doesn't work like that. And you can't do that with a brand new business as well. Be intentionally out of balance, but don't chase it at the same time.
