Balancing work and personal life seems to be a clear objective for every business person, but Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, does not agree with that position.
At an organized Axel Springer event, Bezos revealed a counterintuitive advice that he gives to all the employees of his company, but especially to the newest ones.
The billionaire believes that those who enter to work should stop pursuing a “balance” between professional and personal life because that implies that they are opposites, that if one side grows, the other decreases. Instead, Bezos believes that they are two parts of the same system, of a circle that may or may not be virtuous.
Jeff Bezos has unconventional work habits: he has breakfast every day with his family, he does not set the alarm when he goes to bed, he organizes very few meetings and he reserves a few minutes a day to wash the dishes.
“I try to teach the younger ones about life-work harmony and the bigger ones too. They ask me all the time and my vision is that seeing it as a balance sheet is a problem because it implies that one side receives and the other gives way, “Bezos explained and pointed out that it is really a circle and not a balance.
According to him, you do not have to separate them into categories that compete for time. “If I am happy in my house, I come to work with more energy and if I am happy at work, I return home with a lot of energy,” explained Amazon’s founder.
Also published on Medium.