How Not Taking Time Off Can Cost Your Startup Millions
As the founder and CEO of PK4 Media, you can bet my plate stays pretty full. To support my talented team and sustain meaningful partnerships with our clients, I generally like to keep myself as available as possible amid the day-to-day requirements of running a successful company. But I also know the value of carving out time to disconnect, self-reflect, and recharge.
How many times a week—or even a month—do you power down your phone or tablet and walk away for a while from your inbox? And I don’t mean so you can get in the zone to knock out an important work project or step into a meeting. Our culture lauds being plugged in and reachable at all times, no matter the cost. We celebrate the entrepreneur who answers emails or sends Slack messages at all hours of the night. But are we paying enough attention the importance of disconnecting, even briefly, from our work?
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Many of my fellow entrepreneurs would argue that this type of behavior—to step away from the helm and be out of pocket for more than a few hours—is too costly for their businesses. In some high-stakes scenarios, there’s concern that being unreachable for even a single day could potentially cost a company millions of dollars.
I vehemently disagree. To me, failing to structure time to engage in this type of reflection has an even greater risk of costing the company money for myriad of reasons.
By being intentional about taking time to disconnect, reflect, and recharge, I’ve been able to foster my creativity and come up with ideas that have helped me grow my company ten-fold. I’ve witnessed the same magic for many other bright minds in my community as well.
Failing to take necessary time to recharge can impact revenue in the form of lost opportunity, depleted energy, and diminished creativity. Those who don’t take time for themselves end up getting burned out. We talk about burnout as something that happens at the employee level, but the truth is it can occur just as often in founders and CEOs. Burnout does not discriminate.
By being intentional about taking time to disconnect, reflect, and recharge, I’ve been able to foster my creativity and come up with ideas that have helped me grow my company ten-fold. I’ve witnessed the same magic for many other bright minds in my community as well.
One of my favorite quotes is from Abraham Lincoln: “If I had just five minutes to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first two and a half sharpening my axe.” This is a perfect aphorism to highlight the intrinsic value of building time into my schedule to disconnect. Honoring myself in this way evolved from values that were instilled in me when I was young.
My father hailed from a poor village in India and worked his way up to the cover of Fortune magazine. As a result, both of my hardworking immigrant parents were sometimes tough on me to ensure I didn’t lose sight of the opportunities available here in the United States. For instance, they used to wake me up in the middle of the night to do math problems. I didn’t always appreciate it at the time, but they were preparing me to give my all to my passions and interests as an entrepreneur.
Here’s the thing: part of working hard, giving your all, and tuning in to the big picture means creating space in your mind for reflection. We’re often resistant to pause for even a moment, to sit with ourselves, when this can be the very best thing to move us forward.
This “Freedom Tour”—a brief respite from daily stressors—is a way to sharpen the axe, so to speak. This might look like a ten-minute guided meditation, a half-hour walk through the city, a long morning run, or a 24-hour period over the weekend when you habitually unplug.
For me, this is cherished time to dig deep, explore my thoughts fully and completely, and work all the way through ideas, experiences, and reflections that may be layered or complex. To be sure, this isn’t always a breezy exercise. However, no matter where we might find ourselves on our life’s journey, we owe it to ourselves to engage in this type of meaningful introspection toward self-betterment.
It’s important to step away from the hustle and turn our gaze inward, even for a few minutes each day, so we don’t let a connection with ourselves slip away. After all, the cost of not doing this might be more than you can afford.
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