24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week. Junior investment bankers regularly work 80-90 hours a week. Many other high profile professions require the same level of commitment. Often those on the outside claim that working 80-90 hours a week is bad/wrong/terrible/silly/etc but we’ve spoken with so many folks who say working that much has been the best decision of their life – it allowed them to develop a deep and strong skill set far faster than would have been possible otherwise. In other words, by working 2x the hours, they were able to generate 5x or more the rewards. And depending on where you are in your career, investing heavily in your skills and competence can pay dividends for a long time.

Thrissia Koralek | Child of God, Wife, Mother, Medical Student & Business Entrepreneur

When I moved to America from Brazil at the age of 16, I had many dreams for my personal and professional life. As any immigrant can probably agree, it is a lengthy and arduous process. I moved on my own at the age of 16, became a foreign exchange student during my senior year of high school and was hosted by an amazing family in Arkansas. Once my time was up, I knew that the next step was going to be to go to college in the USA. Read more>>

Wendy Agero | Speech-Language Pathologist

Work life balance will look different for everyone, at each phase of their lives. For me in particular, this is true. There was a point of my life, in my early 20s where work was the priority; despite having a newborn at home. I needed to prove to myself and to our future that we can bust our ass and do what we needed so in the future we can have a better work life balance. Read more>>

Suzy Schwartz | Modem agent

I love this question because I only learned the balance very late in my career. I see fellow colleagues my age who go have been in this business for as long as I have who have still not learned this. I learned from not working for one full year due to legalities in a former contract and that’s when I really found a life for myself! I picked up tennis again in a major way and played every day. Read more>>

ORIOL ANGRILL JORDÀ | Contemplative Fine Artist & Illustrator

That’s a great question. I’m still struggling to find the balance. One of my current projects is about that, by the way. Throwing back in time, when I started working as an artist and also commissions, my whole life was only work and I barely took time for other things that were not art related. I thought I have no right to do that and definitively, I was completely wrong. It took a while to realize how much that was affecting my life. That is another story, though. Read more>>