Rubber Vs Glass

While reading one of Ryan Holiday's articles I came across this quote:

"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them - work, family, health, friends, and spirit...and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other 4 balls - family, friends, health, and spirit - are made out of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same."

- Former Coca-Cola CEO Brian Dyson

I thought that this quote was one of the most profound things I have ever read.

This quote is from a commencement speech that Dyson made at Georgia Tech in 1991, which has till today remained one of the most remembered commencement speeches of all time - up with Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech (which you should also check out if you haven’t somehow already).

The entire commencement address is worth going through but this quote, in particular, coming from the then President and CEO of Coco-Cola (who was then the 47th largest corporation in the United States) stood out.

One of the most important things that we do is to set our priorities. We decide what to focus on and as a result, something else falls to the wayside. Sometimes we fall into the trap of concentrating on the wrong things in our life and rush to save the rubber ball as it falls at the cost of one of the glass ones. Forget that, sometimes we don’t even know if the things we are concentrating on are rubber or glass - easily replaceable or essential.

There have been many times for instance when my obsession with my work or school has come at the consequence of personal relationships. But at the end of the day, as Dyson says, the work will always bounce back and demand more from you. The relationships, your health, your spirit - not so much. At the end of the day, it’s about finding a balance between the rubber and the glass.

When people talk about finding balance they often throw around the term work-life balance. However, after reading the Dyson quote it’s actually quite silly to think of life as the opposite of work. Life encompasses so many other things - family, friends, health, and spirit among others. When did work become something of its own existing outside of our actual life?

The key takeaway from this is to focus on the glass balls - your family, friends, health, spirit - the things that actually matter way more than the job you currently hold. At the end of the day we need to try to live by the words of one of my favorite artists, Noel Gallagher:

I don’t live to work. I work to live ya know?