4 ms·

I agree with the others about vacation. It'd go a little further though: you should take a _true_ vacation, as in no phone, no internet, no nothing. What you g

by d--b 9y ago

I agree with the others about vacation. It'd go a little further though: you should take a _true_ vacation, as in no phone, no internet, no nothing. What you gain from this is: 1. full recharge 2. peace of mind knowing that your company can survive without you 3. it will help you think ahead: you will realize that your immediate work is not the most important of your tasks. You need to focus on the future of your product rather than on operational issues. 3. less guilt about taking vacation 4. your employees / cofounder will feel empowered that you let them in charge for a little while 5. your employees will feel less guilty taking vacations themselves On the other hand, the drawbacks of taking a full week off are: 6. 1 week of funding 'lost' - yes, but you will realize that you will quickly make up for the time you took off. 7. possible failures: yes, although you have 3 guys in your staff, they should be able to dig into issues, probably not as fast as you can, but, hey, you won't be debugging forever... So they've got to learn as well. 8. annoyed customers: yes, well, your product is not perfect yet, so that's the way it's going to be for that week. In fact, I think what's important to realize is that if you find yourself in this situation, it means that your company made some mistakes somewhere. You guys made some trade-offs in favor of quality or time to market and at the expense of personal happiness. And now it's payback time. That "overwork" debt the company took is no longer sustainable. I think the ability to go hands off is way underrated. It is a true skill that you need to develop. For your own sake, but also for the sake of your company.

sharpercoder 9y ago
>less guilt about taking vacation This, and make it clear in various forms (email, several personal meetings, via wife, via friends, et cetera) that any outcome of the state of the company after return is okay. It's the only way to ensure the vacation is effective: vacation with guilt is having a lot less effective vacation. "Freedom" (from the company) must be felt.
sarah665121 9y ago
Lose belly fat fast doing this http://rurl.us/X7uTs http://rurl.us/X7uTs
- jacquesm 9y ago
  flagged.
  - ccvannorman 9y ago
    the first ever purely garbage spam comment on HN after many years! (that I've seen, anyway.) I wonder if the garbage-bot-pushers have finally added HN to their list.
    - jacquesm 9y ago
      There's plenty of them but most are auto blocked. You see these occasional flare-ups and then they usually die down just as fast when they realize it is pointless.
annnnd 9y ago
This is the perfect answer! Nothing else matters in this situation. The only problem with the picture painted by OP is that he is reluctant to let go of control, which is exactly what he should have done a year ago, at least partially. Nobody in the company should be irreplaceable, otherwise you have a single point of failure. On a more practical side: don't work on your vacation (and I mean this in general - like ever) or it doesn't make sense to even go on one. If you must, you can try shorter breaks first so you get confident that the world is still turning once you get back. And do not answer phone calls during the breaks!
mikeriley47 9y ago
I was in debt about 2 years ago for $200k and damn near homeless until I started learning how to do Forex and binary options trading. I now earn a average of $7000 a day and I never looked back. This is what I did to get started and it works http://rurl.us/ctike http://rurl.us/ctike
cybermonkey 9y ago
"When left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse" , Murphy
- d--b 9y ago
  Yes, that's correct. The challenge is to accept that and go with the flow, rather than trying to swim upstream.
- cryptozeus 9y ago
  Love this, applies to so many things.
- starlord 9y ago
  This... doesn't really help me right now, but resonates a lot with my current understanding of the world.
stronglikedan 9y ago
> peace of mind knowing that your company can survive without you And if it doesn't, then hell, it wasn't going to survive with you either! So there's no need to let those thoughts consume you on your vacation.
starlord 9y ago
This sounds good, helpful and a little relaxing. Thanks! I shall add "Going Hands Off" to next skill to acquire list :)

by d--b 9y ago

sharpercoder 9y ago

>less guilt about taking vacation This, and make it clear in various forms (email, several personal meetings, via wife, via friends, et cetera) that any outcome of the state of the company after return is okay. It's the only way to ensure the vacation is effective: vacation with guilt is having a lot less effective vacation. "Freedom" (from the company) must be felt.

sarah665121 9y ago

Lose belly fat fast doing this http://rurl.us/X7uTs http://rurl.us/X7uTs

jacquesm 9y ago
flagged.
- ccvannorman 9y ago
  the first ever purely garbage spam comment on HN after many years! (that I've seen, anyway.) I wonder if the garbage-bot-pushers have finally added HN to their list.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    There's plenty of them but most are auto blocked. You see these occasional flare-ups and then they usually die down just as fast when they realize it is pointless.

annnnd 9y ago

This is the perfect answer! Nothing else matters in this situation. The only problem with the picture painted by OP is that he is reluctant to let go of control, which is exactly what he should have done a year ago, at least partially. Nobody in the company should be irreplaceable, otherwise you have a single point of failure. On a more practical side: don't work on your vacation (and I mean this in general - like ever) or it doesn't make sense to even go on one. If you must, you can try shorter breaks first so you get confident that the world is still turning once you get back. And do not answer phone calls during the breaks!

mikeriley47 9y ago

I was in debt about 2 years ago for $200k and damn near homeless until I started learning how to do Forex and binary options trading. I now earn a average of $7000 a day and I never looked back. This is what I did to get started and it works http://rurl.us/ctike http://rurl.us/ctike

cybermonkey 9y ago

"When left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse" , Murphy

d--b 9y ago
Yes, that's correct. The challenge is to accept that and go with the flow, rather than trying to swim upstream.
cryptozeus 9y ago
Love this, applies to so many things.
starlord 9y ago
This... doesn't really help me right now, but resonates a lot with my current understanding of the world.

stronglikedan 9y ago

> peace of mind knowing that your company can survive without you And if it doesn't, then hell, it wasn't going to survive with you either! So there's no need to let those thoughts consume you on your vacation.

starlord 9y ago

This sounds good, helpful and a little relaxing. Thanks! I shall add "Going Hands Off" to next skill to acquire list :)