Several company executives have published their objectives and plans for achieving them for 2023 in the first week of the new year. Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph discussed his methods for striking a healthy balance between work and personal life.
Randolph has made it a point not to miss their Tuesday date nights for more than 30 years.
The Netflix CEO explains how he did this in a post on LinkedIn, saying, “Rain or shine, I left at exactly 5 pm and spent the evening with my best friend. We would go to a movie, have dinner, or just go window-shopping downtown together.”
On Tuesday evenings, Randolph refused to take meetings, conference calls, last-minute inquiries, or requests.
I’ve worked hard, for my entire career, to keep my life balanced with my job. In my book, I write about my Tuesday date nights with my wife. For over thirty years, I had a hard cut-off on Tuesdays. Rain or shine, I left at exactly 5 pm and spent the evening with my best friend. We would go to a movie, have dinner, or just go window-shopping downtown together.
Nothing got in the way of that. No meeting, no conference call, no last-minute question or request. If you had something to say to me on Tuesday afternoon at 4:55, you had better say it on the way to the parking lot. If there was a crisis, we are going to wrap it up by 5:00.
Those Tuesday nights kept me sane. And they put the rest of my work in perspective
I resolved a long time ago to not be one of those entrepreneurs on their 7th startup and their 7th wife. In fact, the thing I’m most proud of in my life is not the companies I started, it’s the fact that I was able to start them while staying married to the same woman; having my kids grow up knowing me and (best as I can tell) liking me, and being able to spend time pursuing the other passions in my life.
That’s my definition of success. He wrote on LinkedIn.
“If you had something to say to me on Tuesday afternoon at 4:55, you had better say it on the way to the parking lot. If there was a crisis, we are going to wrap it up by 5:00,” he says. He claimed that making time for his wife and spending quality time with her kept him sane and helped him see the bigger picture of the rest of his business.