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A day in the life of a CEO

111 pointsby ryancarsonalmost 13 years ago

20 comments

tatsuke95almost 13 years ago
&#62;<i>@ryancarson can you blog about how you spend your day running your biz? What biz activities do you focus on now that the product is up?</i><p>The person on Twitter <i>clearly</i> asks about the <i>business</i>. The author then proceeds to write 18 points about his day, only five of which are actually about the business, including some gems like, <i>"Crank through todos"</i>.<p>Does this guy think he's a celebrity or something? Why am I interested in his personal life whatsoever? He's the "CEO" of a small company most people have never heard of.<p>Someone in the comments asks him why he calls his phone an iPhone, rather than just a phone, to which he replies that he wants us to know the all the details and specifics. Oh, so you go into detail about how eating right away boosts your metabolism, but 3 hours of the day is "meetings"? Thanks for being specific.
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kanwisheralmost 13 years ago
Am I the only one that feels Ryan's blog is mostly hacker news link bait, every article is pretty fluffy stuff that gets a lot of upvotes. I'm not sure how much actual value you get from knowing his schedule
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yesimahumanalmost 13 years ago
Hey Ryan,<p>I'm just curious how you handle spending quality time with your employees. I've worked at companies where the CEO is never around, and when you do meet with him, it's in meetings that feel rushed and they are always looking at their watch for the next meeting. Frankly, it's disrespectful and it <i>does</i> negatively impact the morale of the team.<p>I'm in the CEO role right now, and I'm realizing a lot of meetings that we schedule are frankly worthless. We'd be better off canceling them and spending time working on stuff with the team.<p>As a side note, I enjoyed watching some of the making of the Boeing 777 (<a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3551731641323350192" rel="nofollow">http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3551731641323350192</a>). Then-CEO Alan Mulally is often in meetings with the employees and not trying to control every thing. It's pretty refreshing.
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DanBCalmost 13 years ago
Thanks for this. The BBC Radio Four programme "The Bottom Line" recently had some discussion with business people about one of their days.<p>Here's the link to the Podcast, which should be available in different regions.<p>(<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jxtfb#synopsis" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jxtfb#synopsis</a>)<p>They also mention some research (that he read via the London School of Economics) about days in the life of Italian business people (but quite large businesses, 8,000 employees) - I haven't found that report yet.<p>The Bottom Line should be interesting to many people on HN - it's a less formal discussion guided by Evan Davis with business people.
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ryancarsonalmost 13 years ago
Thank you to everyone who took time to stick up for me here. I can take it though, don't worry. I appreciate it nevertheless.<p>I wrote the post because I'm interested in the details behind everyone's daily life. It's where talk meets action. I don't think I'm a celebrity. I merely wanted to be transparent about my routine so that other CEOs could see how their life compares.<p>I submit my articles to HN, but it's the community that puts them on the front page. Take them or leave them. It's just my blog :)
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blhackalmost 13 years ago
&#62;5:05 AM - Make a point of appreciating all that is good about my life, instead of immediately rushing into my day. I often take a deep breath and sit out on our deck for a few minutes.<p>Is this meant to be satire or something? This was seriously put into his schedule as a 5 minute task?
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dbeckeralmost 13 years ago
CEO's say how busy they are, but it seems like most execution is handled by people below the CEO. So I'm left wondering what are specific tasks that are the right level to keep the CEO so busy?<p>The author had a great chance to address this... but all we're told is "meetings" and "todo list."
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Deezulalmost 13 years ago
I really appreciate hearing about the very paced/zen schedule you seem to keep. I'm a firm believer that productivity is an easily exhaustible resource and you can't simply extract more of it per week with additional desk hours. You can have all the money and time in the world, but true freedom is the ability to bask in every small moment of the day, revel in the experience and reflect on life as it happens. Don't wait for the big payoff.
UnoriginalGuyalmost 13 years ago
He can go to bed at 10 pm and wake up at 5 am? I go to bed at 10 and wake up still extremely tired at 7 am...
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justjimmyalmost 13 years ago
The gem I found from his post is this: <a href="https://www.philrichardsperformance.co.uk/index.php/goodness-greens.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.philrichardsperformance.co.uk/index.php/goodness...</a><p>I have never tried supplements, always thought they were a bit extreme and only for hardcore athletes and fitness buffs. As I get older, I realize the importance of metabolism (who cares about it when you're a teen and it's sky high), knowing eating breakfast really kicks up your metabolism and how fibre and greens play in your health.<p>Now I'm actually very tempted to try this supplement out - seems really healthy even though it comes packaged in a plastic jar and powder form.
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mej10almost 13 years ago
I love reading things like this and it sounds like you live a very balanced life. Honestly, this sounds like a pretty ideal schedule.<p>Any advice for someone that still has a day job? I don't have kids but do try to spend a good amount of time with my SO.
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mikeleeorgalmost 13 years ago
The important thing to note is:<p><i>"When Treehouse was &#60;25 people, I actually did a lot of execution. I’d write newsletters, sketch wireframes, answer support emails, start marketing campaigns, etc.</i><p><i>Now that we’re about to hit 50 full-time employees, I spend all my time ‘steering the ship’.</i><p>I suspect some of the vitriol here is due to the relatively large audience of entrepreneurs in startups less than half his size. To be more relevant, I'd love to see his schedule when he was a 3-5 person company.
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davidwalmost 13 years ago
Very detailed: except for what sort of things the "todos" actually are - and that's a significant portion of the time.
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johnndegealmost 13 years ago
I don't know many people who wake up at 5am. Is that necessary to get the job done or just your preferred wake up time?
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abalashovalmost 13 years ago
That sounds terrible. If this is being a CEO, I don't want any part of it, especially the dull evenings.
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yankoffalmost 13 years ago
A well structured, balanced life with the focus on family. It possibly leads to some degree of happiness and stability, but this seems so boring for being a CEO. Where's the action! Most the time seems wasted on minor daily routines that could be squeezed into 1 hour.
taurussaialmost 13 years ago
Close to 9 hrs of work/day and with 4 day work weeks this seems to be a well balanced life! One can argue that quality of work is way better than quantity but this looks primarily for a later stage startup founder...
Timotheealmost 13 years ago
Question for Ryan: I know you said you work 4 days a week at Treehouse. How well do you respect that? Do you do any kind of work during the weekend or just errands, relaxing and family time?
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samstavealmost 13 years ago
According to this, he puts in 28 hours per week, which doesn't account for time in the restroom, sidebar chats, walking between appointments, personal life issues that pop up etc.<p>Sounds like a dream job.
Paul_Salmost 13 years ago
I turn up at 9-10am and then churn out code for 7-10 hours.<p>This is why I don't have a blog.