In 2014 my co-founder Jenny Galluzzo and I had an idea- what if we create a company that would give women, our tribe of friends, sisters and colleagues, the ability to work on projects worthy of their experience at that moment in their careers when the traditional work place was not working for them? From that idea The Second Shift was born; a marketplace that connects our membership of executives with companies that understand the value in boldly embracing the gig-economy when they need an expert.
But before we built a site or got office space, we talked to everyone who’s opinions we valued and had grown succesful businesses. What advice did they have for us?
In one of our earliest meetings an advisor summed it up for us. “You are going to have to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week to build a company that insures women never have to work that way again if they don’t want to”.
And he was right. And we did. For years.
This is what you do when you found a company; you work all the time.
And it paid off. The Second Shift is a real company with year over year success that proves our model.
But so many nights I went to bed nauseous from the adrenalin- unable to turn it off because there is always something to do.
Then recently I had another conversation with an advisor, a successful woman who has always balanced it all. “I have learned that working all the time for the sake of working doesn’t move the needle. It just makes you, and everyone you love, miserable.” And she is right, too.
So I made a decision. I stay off email on the weekends.
I take a moment to step away and be present in a way that I can’t when I am constantly hitting refresh.
With just that little bit of space I can feel the difference.
Now I am disrupting the notion of what it is to work successfully not only for our Second Shift members, but for myself as well.