“The entrepreneur’s dilemma: Maintaining friendships. Building a great company. Spending time w/family. Staying fit. Getting sleep. Pick 3.”
– Randi Zuckerberg
The other week I saw a tweet from Randi Zuckerberg about the entrepreneur’s dilemma and it stuck with me. I kept mulling it over again and again. Pick three? Only three? What if we want it all? What if we want the great company, the friendships, family time, a fit body and to feel rested? Ads tell us we can have it all. So does the media. And if you’re anything like me, you would probably swear you know those women who have it all, too.
But Randi, a new mom herself, is on to something – only, I disagree with one point in her tweet. It’s not just the entrepreneur’s dilemma. It’s a dilemma for all women. How do you have it all when you work so hard just to find balance with all you do have (and want to have)?
On I Want Her Job, we’ve profiled more than 150 women. One of the prevalent themes is balance. The phenomenal women we look up to and feature on the site are candid about the fact that balance is something they strive for on a daily basis. If you have the dream job, how is it possible to maintain everything else in your life? And how do you balance that job with the desire to have a baby? How do you maintain and grow your career once you have a baby? How does your career fit in with your career-focused husband? What if he needs to move abroad in his career, even though it might not be the best idea for your career? How do you move to a new city to pursue your dream career when you know nobody and have anorexic funds?
Throughout the coming year, we’re going to focus on these topics and more on the site every Friday. You’ll hear from I Want Her Job editors, former leading ladies and women who have faced some of these questions themselves. But because we’re determined women who want to bring you the best content, we’re taking it up another notch. I Want Her Job is also going to start sharing the voices of phenomenal men – men who understand the struggles women face, men who have struggles all their own and men who can share their take on female leaders and what it takes to become one.
After all, balance is a subject we all contemplate in our careers, especially when it comes to work and family. Even big networks are finally picking up on it. Look no further than NBC’s new hit comedy “Up All Night.” Christina Applegate is the working woman with a high-level career as a producer and Will Arnett is the lawyer turned stay-at-home dad. Some companies, including the one I work at, offer not just maternity leave, but paternity leave as well, so dads can have the chance to bond with their babies, too.
While you ponder and fine tune your own way to achieve work-life balance, I want to share with you a tip of my own. It came from a leading lady in my own life – my mom. She once told me she can’t give 100 percent to my sisters, my dad, her career and her other commitments all in the same day. Some days my sisters and I get 50 percent of her time and her job gets the other 50. Some days it’s her job that gets 80 percent and my dad who gets 20. She tries to balance the time she gives everyone, but she’s cognizant of the fact that she can’t be everything to everyone every second of every day. It’s not easy to think this way, but I for one like this option better than picking only three things to focus my energy on.
Join us as we try to answer the question, “Can women really have it all?,” and perhaps more importantly, “How?” And give us your take. Together we’ll find answers to this question – and better yet, answers that don’t mean settling.
Brianne Burrowes
Founder + Curator | I Want Her Job
2 comments
While I like the general concept of finding balance, I disagree with the way that a husband and a baby are presented here as something the woman who “has everything” wants/needs/has. What year is this again? I don’t need these things to feel fulfilled, and though I respect someone who is able to manage all those things at once, I’d like to hear from more women who don’t have to and are loving it.
Comment by alex on January 1, 2012 at 5:53 am
Alex, thanks for your comment. We agree that not every woman wants/needs/has a husband. One of the scenarios above mentioned a girl moving to a big city to pursue a job without knowing anyone. That certainly has nothing to do with a husband or baby. Though that said, many of the women we have interviewed do struggle with the work/family balance, so we wanted to illustrate that here. We absolutely agree that voices from women in varying situations should be represented. Feel free to drop me a note at iwantherjob[at]gmail[dot]com if there’s a specific story/scenario you’d like to hear about, or if you have one of your own that you’d like to share.
Comment by Brianne on January 4, 2012 at 12:06 am