{"id":53,"date":"2012-01-20T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2012-01-20T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/?p=53"},"modified":"2012-02-01T06:58:52","modified_gmt":"2012-02-01T11:58:52","slug":"interview-with-len-schlesinger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/interview-with-len-schlesinger\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Len Schlesinger"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Len<\/a>

Len Schlesinger is the President of Babson College. Prior to that, he was Vice Chairman and COO of Limited Brands, and Executive Vice President and COO at Au Bon Pain. He was also a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School for 20 years. He is the author or co-author of ten business books.<\/p><\/div>\n

Len Schlesinger on the greatest misconception about entrepreneurship; what entrepreneurs often don\u2019t take into account; the one rule he and his wife have; the notion of \u201cacceptable loss\u201d, and why work-life balance is not realistically achievable.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 Why do you think that the effects of an entrepreneurial business on families is not a topic addressed in business schools?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>:\u00a0 It\u2019s a topic that gets discussed in panels and forums, at meals and coffee breaks, and at\u00a0\u00a0 EO and YPO meetings–but it never comes up inside the classroom.\u00a0 From an academic standpoint, there\u2019s been no systematic data collection related to this topic, so faculty don\u2019t have much to offer about it. By putting this topic out there in your articles and your book, you are legitimizing more public conversation around it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 What do you think is the greatest misconception about entrepreneurship and families?<\/p>\n

A:<\/strong>\u00a0 What is most na\u00efve about our discussions of entrepreneurship is that it is defined as a solo activity.\u00a0 In reality, it isn\u2019t.\u00a0 There are key relationships–partners, family, and friends.\u00a0 The notion that it is just the entrepreneur who is directly affected by a startup\u2014the rewriting of the story that way to make it more interesting\u2014is not only inaccurate but, quite honestly, ends up discouraging other people from launching businesses.\u00a0 They feel, \u201cI can\u2019t be that hero, I can\u2019t take the enormous risk that he or she incurred.\u201d\u00a0 Or, \u201cI have a spouse and kids, and in order to do this I would have to sacrifice having any kind of relationship with them.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the questions we raise in teaching entrepreneurship is, \u201cWhat is your current reality\u2014and that includes your family situation.\u201d Your relationships are key.\u00a0 To not attend to family in pursuit of an<\/strong> opportunity will create many problems.\u00a0 It\u2019s also a script for failure on the venture side or on the family side, and generally both.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Equally important is the conversation about kids.\u00a0 For this population, neglecting this situation can become a real mess.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 What do you mean by that?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>:\u00a0 Entrepreneurs often don\u2019t take into account their partners, spouse, or children.\u00a0 They assume that growth and development of the relationships will just continue as in the past.\u00a0 Also, they use vehicles like YPO to create\u2014and I\u2019m admittedly cynical about this\u2014a manufactured and overly rosy version of their experiences as entrepreneurs that\u2019s supposed to encourage aspiring entrepreneurs but has the opposite effect.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 What\u2019s an example?<\/p>\n

A:<\/strong>\u00a0 They\u2019ll describe entrepreneurs as having open and informal life chats with their kids on a boat, for example\u2014but the reality bears no resemblance to that. It\u2019s a huge disconnect.\u00a0 For most entrepreneurs, their level of attention to family matters is episodic at best.\u00a0 But if you don\u2019t think about your relationships consciously and deliberately, you are likely to damage them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 What do you see happening as a result, on a personal and on a business level?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>:\u00a0 I think it hurts both, because your family relationships are going to be sub-optimal.\u00a0 If you care about them at all, it\u2019s likely to have a negative effect on your ability to execute on the business side as well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been married for 39 years, and we have three reasonably well-adjusted children.\u00a0 But I spent large amounts of my life on airplanes.\u00a0 I say that my marriage has been twenty of the best years of my life, because the other twenty I\u2019ve been on airplanes and doing work.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 So how did you make your relationship and family life work?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0<\/strong> The issue is, how do you carve out time?\u00a0 People think I\u2019m going to do something great and I\u2019m going to have a balanced life.\u00a0 My response to that is, you\u2019re either a million times better than me or you\u2019re a fool.\u00a0 When they ask me what I mean, I reply:\u00a0 There\u2019s no question in my mind that balance is achievable over a reasonable time frame, but the notion that you\u2019re going to have balance in real time while attempting to do something extraordinary is just not realistic.\u00a0 So every decision you make about how you are going to spend your time has a price.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The decision to do something significant by definition is going to take a much greater amount of time away from other aspects of your life than you expect.\u00a0 Harboring the notion that this isn\u2019t going to happen is totally unrealistic.\u00a0 I\u2019d much rather be clear about it:\u00a0 it\u2019s going to happen, so let\u2019s be upfront about the expected duration, keep checking that it continues to be a good deal, and recognize that it\u2019s neither balanced nor optimal, but that it is right for you and your family.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 How does your wife handle your intense commitment to work?<\/p>\n

A:<\/strong>\u00a0 She understands me.\u00a0 When I retired from Limited Brands, people asked my wife how she was going to handle my being home all the time.\u00a0 We had three glorious months\u2014traveling, seeing movies on weekday mornings, doing absolutely nothing.\u00a0 After three months my wife said, \u201cWe\u2019re spending too much time together.\u00a0 You\u2019re starting to get itchy.\u00a0 Go do something.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 Talk to me about this issue of balance.<\/p>\n

A:<\/strong>\u00a0 If your goal is to achieve balance over a lifetime, then likely when you die you\u2019ll have a whole portfolio of regrets.\u00a0 If your goal is to achieve balance over a more reasonable amount of time, then say, \u201cMy year has got to have x amount of time doing this and y amount of time doing that, and it\u2019s important that I carve out that time in the context of what I\u2019m doing.\u201d\u00a0 This is eminently more achievable.\u00a0 However, this is not realistic for an entrepreneur in the middle of a start-up.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In our house, we do have the rule that one time during the day\u2014when we\u2019re sitting down to eat\u2014 all the phones have to be off.\u00a0 After the meal we turn them back on.\u00a0 Smartphones have had a hugely disruptive effect on relationships.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 if you were counseling a young entrepreneur\u2014say say one of your kids approached you wanting to start a business\u2014what would you counsel about achieving success in work and life?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0<\/strong> Number one:\u00a0 you really need to have a strong commitment to do something.\u00a0 The notion of exploring the potential of finding something you might desire is probably not the most effective way to spend your time.\u00a0 If there IS something you want to do, then I have a framework I take from economics, called \u201cAcceptable Loss.\u201d\u00a0 What are you willing to pay to play, in terms of time, money, opportunity costs, and reputational capital?\u00a0 One of the most fundamental variables about what you are willing to pay to play is how you are going to deal with your relationships with partners, children, and friends.\u00a0 How much of that are you willing to give up?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This might start as a rational analysis by the couple, but it usually doesn\u2019t get re-visited except for when there\u2019s an argument.\u00a0 At each step you have an obligation to revisit the question about calculating what you\u2019re willing to pay to play.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: Is that realistic when you\u2019re in the middle of a venture?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>:\u00a0 When you\u2019re in the middle of a venture, how do you know when to stop?\u00a0 One way is when you don\u2019t want to do it anymore.\u00a0 The other way is when what it costs to pay to play exceeds the value of what you\u2019re getting from the enterprise.\u00a0 That\u2019s an eminently rational and easy conversation to have.\u00a0 The entrepreneur usually won\u2019t raise the question on his or her own, and typically has to get prompted by a partner who cares.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 What do those entrepreneurs who\u2019ve managed to maintain good family relationships have in common?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>:\u00a0 They consciously spend time on their important relationships. The relationships that get in trouble and end up in therapy are when people pay someone to facilitate the conversation they should have had on their own.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: Do you see a role for this kind of conversation in a business or academic setting?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>:\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 There\u2019s no question in my view that if you\u2019re going to help people do significant things, you ought to be helping them with the personal issues and problems that are inevitably going to occur.\u00a0\u00a0 I would do this in a graduate school setting, for example, with students in an accelerated entrepreneurship program–those who are really committed to starting a business.\u00a0 It\u2019s yet another dose of reality in the process of framing not only their ventures, but how they want to structure their lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Len Schlesinger on the greatest misconception about entrepreneurship; what entrepreneurs often don\u2019t take into account; the one rule he and his wife have; the notion of \u201cacceptable loss\u201d, and why work-life balance is not realistically achievable.\u00a0 Q:\u00a0 Why do you think that the effects of an entrepreneurial business on families is not a topic addressed in business schools? A:\u00a0 It\u2019s a topic that gets discussed in panels and forums, at meals and coffee breaks, and at\u00a0\u00a0 EO and YPO meetings–but it never comes up inside the classroom.\u00a0 From an academic standpoint, there\u2019s been no systematic data collection related to this topic, so faculty don\u2019t have much to offer about it. By putting this topic out there in your articles and your book, you are legitimizing more public conversation around it. Q:\u00a0 What do you think is the greatest misconception about entrepreneurship and families? A:\u00a0 What is most na\u00efve about our discussions of entrepreneurship is that it is defined as a solo activity.\u00a0 In reality, it isn\u2019t.\u00a0 There are key relationships–partners, family, and friends.\u00a0 The notion that it is just<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,10,25,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creating-work-life-boundaries","category-interviews","category-the-entrepreneurial-personality","category-the-spouses-concerns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":60,"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":498,"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.meghirshberg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}