Different Ways of Balancing Posted on October 19, 2007 Robert C. Malenka (bio) underlines the importance of finding a balance that works best for you.

I will say that every successful person I know, whether they’re an academic, whether they’re in the business world, you know, has gone through periods of their life where they have made personal sacrifices; they have worked very, very hard and long hours. And the other important aspect is finding a balance that one can live with yourself.

Some people, you know, it’s very important to them to spend X number of hours with their children, with their spouse. There are other married couples and families where it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality. And I think everybody has to find that own balance, and I think one has to recognize there is no right or wrong answer. There are many different paths to take. There are many different ways of balancing.

And I do know a few people who just are incredibly efficient and were able to forge successful academic careers basically working from 8:00 to 5:00 because they wanted to go home and have dinner with their kids. Although when you really start probing, most of those people, yeah, they had dinner with their kids and they played and they put their kids to bed at 8:00 or 9:00 at night, then they worked from 9:00 until midnight.

And I was somebody who preferred to keep kind of work and family life separate, so I was somebody who worked probably until 7:00 or 8:00 and missed a lot of dinners with my kids, but when I was home, I wasn’t working and I was there. And that’s just another kind of different way of approaching it.

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