I just finished reading a blog entry by a venture capitalist that got me thinking. The post is about strategies for working while on vacation and having it not interfere with family obligations, or at least not be noticed by your spouse. You have to be a supremely good multi-tasker, which this VC is: in fact, he sent the blog post while working out on an an elliptical trainer. (How he typed it I am not sure.) He makes his phone calls (from Hawaii, where he is vacationing) while his family sleeps. He looks at his Blackberry while waiting for tours to begin. “The idea of a ‘get away from it all’ vacation is a romantic notion that I cannot [my italics] seem to achieve,” he notes.
I am not big on “cannot.” Like many things entrepreneurs do, vacations are a choice. Working on vacations is a choice. Not working on vacations, also a choice. Can’t? He goes on: “My friend…does ‘go off the grid’ for one week a quarter every quarter. I’ve asked him how he does it and I honestly can’t see myself pulling it off. I wish I could.” Really? I don’t know this individual personally but I know of him–and know how smart and resourceful he is and how he has made a lot of his other life wishes come true. This is someone for whom the word “can’t” should be banished from thought and speech–as it should for us all. This person can, and has, done everything he’s ever set his mind to. What a shame to be in Hawaii and have your pocket vibrating with a @*%$*& Blackberry.
