Steve Blank Epitaph for an Entrepreneur

What will your  epitaph  say?  When our kids were babies I was still struggling to try to put the work/lifebalance in perspective. Someone gave me a thought that I tried to live my live my life around. He asked me, when you’re gone would you rather have your gravestone say, “ He never missed a meeting .” Or one that

Raising our kids and being an entrepreneur wasn’t easy. Being in a startup and having a successful relationship and family was  very  hard work. But entrepreneurs  can be  great spouses and parents.

When I was in my 20’s the two concepts that mattered were, “ me”  and “ right now.”  As I got older I began to understand the concept of “ others ” and “ the future .” I began to realize that working 24/7 wasn’t my only goal in life.

As a single entrepreneur I had a philosophy of, “ I live to work ” – nothing was more exciting or important than my job. Now with kids it had become, “ I work to live .” I still loved what I did as an entrepreneur but I wasn’t working only for the sheer joy of it, I was also working to provide for my family and a longer term goal of retir