Happy Tuesday! What a beautiful morning it is!

I went to bed at 9:15PM (never happens) and my wife woke me up at 4:45AM to watch Parks and Rec, followed by a 6AM gym sesh, so your boy is firing on all cylinders and 300MG of caffeine already.

Today I’m actually recording my first podcast since breaking the CROSSNET news. I can’t wait for you guys to listen to this because I know its going to get emotional as we break down everything that went into it. Eight years of lessons. Mistakes. Learnings. And most of all learning how to be resilient as hell through it all.

Although I’m only 32, the #1 thing I see young entrepreneurs do wrong is not have patience. If you’ve heard Gary V say this before, I’m 100% stealing it, but its so damn true. Everyone wants overnight success. They start a company. Launch an idea. Give up in four months when it hasn’t paid their bills or made them more than their full time salary. The reality is this shit is really hard and it takes time for it to be actually worth it.

In the beginning you’re buying yourself a job. To be honest, probably a really shitty job because everybody gets paid besides you. Eventually if you hold on long enough some scraps start to come your way and soon enough you’re business is able to pay you a livable wage. The best feeling in the world.

But even better you are finally in control of your time.

No manager. Nobody breathing down your neck. The more you work, the more freedom you can create. You are the keeper of your time and that allows you to do things like podcast at 11AM on a Tuesday, not miss your kid’s basketball game, go on vacation more than three days a year. Whatever it is that is important to you, you can make it work by being the keeper of your calendar. That’s a feeling no amount of money can buy.

But freedom is not what today’s newsletter is about. It’s the pursuit of that freedom and the concept of “work-life balance.” This may ruffle some feathers, especially some of the Gen Z’rs out there, there is NO SUCH THING as work-life balance in the early days. You need to stop complaining. Work harder. Roll up your sleeves. You are trying to escape the life that 99.99% of the planet dream of.

You definitely deserve rest, a solid routine, etc. And you certainly should have a life outside of the business, otherwise you’ll go crazy. But the word “balance” implies that you’re getting a clean split, equal time, equal energy, equal intention.

And if you’re in the thick of it, trying to build something of value, life just doesn’t divide like that.

This advice, usually coming from people who’ve never had to sign both sides of a paycheck, falls flat when you’re carrying the whole thing on your back. For founders, the line between life and work is more of a blur than it is a boundary.

And that’s not necessarily a problem. It’s a necessary evil that comes along with living the life that you chose to live.

Why Most Founders Feel Guilty All the Time

You’re working late and feel guilty you’re not with your spouse. You’re at dinner and feel guilty you’re not checking Slack. You’re always somewhere pushing the pace, but never fully anywhere.

That guilt is a natural feeling that comes from working too hard and always getting stuck believing you’re supposed to be somewhere else. You think balance means presence. But presence comes from peace of mind, not losing your mind refreshing your email every 2 minutes. You could clear your calendar, log off by 5, sit on the couch, and still feel anxious because your brain’s still spinning on a decision you’ve been avoiding for a week.

It’s more so about attention and intention than time itself. And when your attention is fractured, no amount of time off will fix that.

The Trade-Off Isn’t Bad. It’s Just How it Is.

You didn’t sign up for a normal life. You chose the 3am brainstorms, annoying, never-ending Slack pings, and the emotional weight of managing other people and cash flow at the same time. That wasn’t an accident. This isn’t really a life that someone can just “fall into.”

You saw what was possible on the other side of risk and you ran toward it. That’s awesome. But yeah, that means your life won’t look like your friends’ lives. You’ll miss things, probably let people down and do other things that suck like working through sickness and showing up when you don’t want to.

But if you’re honest, you wouldn’t trade it. When it does click and you feel the business hitting its stride, your team executing, and your vision actually landing, there’s nothing like it. It feels right.

What Balance Actually Looks Like at This Level

If you’re getting into this game for the time freedom, you’re probably barking up the wrong tree. The four-hour workweek that Tim Ferriss once spoke about is pretty much a myth as far as I’m concerned. Outsourcing your calendar to a VA so you can float around in “monk mode” won’t really get you to where you need to be.

Balance at this level essentially looks like intentional chaos. Like knowing that there’s times when you need to sprint and others when you need to fall off the map and work heads-down for a bit. Structuring your week so your team gets what they need and your family doesn’t get your leftovers might just be that first step in the right direction.

Maybe you need to give 12 hours to the business today so that you can disappear for 48 hours this weekend and actually enjoy it. Like we said earlier, balance is probably never going to look completely symmetrical. But having the freedom and the ability to move your time where it’s needed most, without apologizing for it, is something that you can’t take for granted.

Mercury Gets it Done

When you’re operating without “balance,” you need tools that can keep up with the way you actually work.

I can send wires, manage multiple accounts, and track cash flow from my phone while I’m on the move, whether that’s between meetings or on a rare 48-hour reset.

We use Mercury at The Founders Club because there’s no branch visits necessary full of pointless busywork and having to slow down to deal with archaic processes. 

• Repeat payments with a click

• Drag-and-drop invoices to pay vendors (even international ones)

• Intuitive dashboard to track money in and out 

• Categorize and sync expenses for clean books
  

  And when it comes to spend, Mercury lets you see it all.

• Track expenses by vendor or category

• Virtual cards for your whole team

• Custom limits and merchant locks

• Smart approval flows so everything's aligned

When your time and focus are your most valuable resources, the last thing you want is to waste them on clunky banking. Mercury keeps your money moving as fast as you are. If you’re still dealing with a bank that doesn’t understand how founders actually operate, it might be time to upgrade.

They're offering up to $500 to get started. Terms apply.

^{Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC. The IO Card is issued by Patriot Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Mastercard®.}

What Happens If You Don’t Accept This

If you don’t accept that this is the reality that you’ve chosen, you’ll essentially suffer twice. First, from the pressure of building, then from the feeling of not “balancing” it all correctly. You end up resenting the business and blaming it for the weight you’re carrying, when really, the weight comes from unrealistic expectations.

There’s no award that you get for pretending this gets easier. There’s just burnout, resentment, and plenty of missed moments. And the tragedy is that most founders burn out from constantly judging themselves for not working right. That’s the real cost of this journey, get after it at your own risk.

How I Learned to Live Without Balance

When CROSSNET was scaling, I remember this 6-week stretch where I didn’t do a single thing “for fun.” I don’t think that I had a single normal dinner, watched any TV, or had any sort of real downtime. I barely saw Lyndsey except for when we were working on the business together. I’ll always be grateful for her sacrifice during those times, but that really did suck for a while.

But weirdly, I wasn’t completely miserable. I was locked in. We were hitting numbers I’d dreamed about for years, and I was doing it with the people that I loved. I was tired, no doubt, but not drained. Then two months later, everything slowed down. I took a full week off. Phone away, laptop closed. My mind was finally feeling clear again.

I felt that I needed that stretch of time more than anything, so I just ran with it. It taught me that finding a true rhythm is what we’re after, not what you’d consider to be “balance,” just the best that we can get. Nowadays, when the business calls, I go. When my body says stop, I listen. I trust the rhythm that I’ve built over nearly 10 years of entrepreneurship. Lots of trial by fire in there.

I’ve seen plenty of founders burn out trying to avoid imbalance, and others burn everything down by never resting. The self awareness to protect what matters most, no matter what period of building the business that you’re in, will take you the furthest.

So Where Do You Go From Here?

Stop waiting for life to feel evenly distributed. That’s a game that you’ll only want to play once, and nobody wins. Take it from someone who’s been there, done that. Start designing a cadence ASAP that fits your day to day life and what you’re consistently working towards. Build in sprints and recovery sessions. Know that not every day will feel "balanced," but over time, your life will.

One thing that’s helped me immensely more than I would’ve ever thought is building with people who understand that intensity doesn’t mean insanity. The focus that you gain from periods like this doesn’t mean isolation if pushing hard with other A-players.

Here’s the Point:

Balance is a trap for founders. Finding your rhythm is the real game to be played and solved. Protect your time, running on empty doesn’t help you, the business, or anyone around you that you owe your valuable time to. Don’t apologize to the people not in the game for building your life differently than they might be.

And whatever season you’re in, go all in. You can always recalibrate, but you can’t outsource the life you’re meant to live.

All in,

Chris