The following is part 6 of my 8 part series on entrepreneurs and their attempts at work-life balance.
Shivani knows how hard it is to achieve balance: she hasn’t yet. Angie can enjoy life and work by heading to the movies but Shivani can’t always escape. Like Angie, Shivani works by day and puts her entrepreneur cap on at night. She defines an entrepreneur as “a person who starts something” (Reams, 2006) and she certainly fits the bill. Just recently Shivani organized and hosted the Women 2.0 Conference for female entrepreneurs. This feat alone could warrant a full-time job.
Shivani is an auditor at a large accounting firm. She likes what she’s doing but she says she couldn’t see herself doing it forever. She attempts to balance her professional life with her college-market consulting company. Shivani finds this work (like planning conferences) to be “fun and entertaining.” Additionally, she’s able to do what she wants and nobody is there to tell her what to do. “The options are nice”, she says. But, even enjoying what she does isn’t enough: she hasn’t achieved balance.
Shivani says that people consider her work life to be her personal life. Admittedly, she notes that the two are very blurred. “I think it’s hard when you run a business to walk away from it because it’s something you put a lot of effort into… it’s always on your mind.” She recalls an experience in a restaurant where she couldn’t help but see the restaurant as a problem begging for her solutions. She finds that everything she does somehow ties back to work. Shivani has yet to achieve balance.
Shivani isn’t alone. She’s a young entrepreneur perhaps struggling with a professional identity crisis. Sure, she may be happy with what she’s doing but it seems hard to balance work and life when you’re trying to balance two different lines of work. Sure, Angie still works for someone else but it’s obvious that there is no competition for her attention; she focuses primarily on her business. Obviously I may not understand all of the details but I’m reminded of an anonymous quote: “He who chases two rabbits will catch neither.”
Series: Background, Steve Pavlina, Jeremy Wright, Rory and Sandra Burke, Angie Chang, Shivani Sopory, Conclusions, Final Thoughts
[tags]entrepreneurship, accounting, balance, passion, work[/tags]
wow dev, way to pass judgement on a someone who tried to help you out with your work
haha, j/k, i can handle it.
I do understand your last quote, but I’m still really young and now’s the time to learn. I don’t want to hole myself into one industry or one profession because people don’t think I can handle it. I’ll see how far I can get, and if I collapse from exhaustion, quit a job, or if anybody fires me for not doing a good job, you’ll be the first to know
Noooo nooo, I’m not passing judgment at all. I, myself, can be guilty of the same thing (5 simultanious jobs? Am I balanced? Hell no!) We’re at a good age for that (learning) and I’m definitely interested in how things go for you (and me, and anyone for that matter). I’m still not even sure what I’ll be doing after graduation next year! Hah, and I’m already a mess!