The insanity of the start-up world

When I started out my career I landed a job in Macys training program.  The first three months were dedicated towards training with your peers.  We learned how the organization worked although like most things it isn't until you are in the thick of things in real time that you understand how the organization truly works.  So I like to think of the first three months as an opportunity to find out where the bathroom is. 

After the initial three months each of us were placed in a store as a department manager.  I was placed in Kings Plaza as the cosmetics manager.  Perhaps because of my background in retail that they gave me that job.  I was responsible for about 100 people with a co-manager who was 20 years older than me.  I was the only non-professional cosmetics department manager in the entire chain.  Professional managers are people who did not go through the training squad and have been hired as permanent managers through the store management. 

I was in my 20's and I worked like a dog.  I actually took pleasure in clocking in an 80 hour work week.  It was like a badge of honor.  That work ethic has continued with me through my career but the reality is that as I get older it is exhausting. 

The start-up world is constant.  Emails come from people in the early hours of the morning until late into the night.  Weekends might be a change of pace but the working world does not stop.  New ideas, new companies, shifting concepts, business challenges all come fast and furious.  It is never ending.  I love the intellectual stimulation of it all, the constant thought process, the whole shebang but it is exhausting.  If there were only 36 hours in a day...oh what I could do. 

There are just times when you need to recharge your batteries and rethink how long can I work at that level.  Not sure i know the answer.  I love to play hard and work hard.  So I am taking it down a notch this summer.  July is ending up a little busier than I would have liked but I am hoping that in August I will be able to put a very different head on and only focus on what I need to focus on. 

Let's see what September brings...