Successful People Make Time For Love

Many driven careerists work hard all year long in order to achieve and become a success at work. That success in today’s hectic working world often means sacrifice

What is usually sacrificed in order to succeed in one’s career is one’s personal life. Family, friends and most of all significant others must make way for the career. Time for love must give way to time for work. Or at least, that’s the conventional thinking.

The unconventional reality however, is surprising. Many successful people actually made time for love.

In Peter Han’s book, Nobodies to Somebodies: How 100 Leaders in Business, Politics, Arts, Science and Nonprofits Got Started, he wrote that “Leaders made time for love. A strikingly high number of my male interviewees, at least, mentioned their spouses in glowing terms, pointed to them as bedrocks of stability, and generally showed a heavy reliance on them.”

In fact, a lot of success stories seemed to involve successful love stories as well. The author Peter Han goes on to write in his book that “a surprisingly high percentage [of leaders] – certainly higher than the general population – had remained with their original partners, or at least had been in marriages stretching multiple decades.”

Although one usually hears about the many unsuccessful marriages among successful people, the reverse is also true. There are a number of successful marriages among successful people as well. Bill and Melinda Gates stand out as one example.

Bill Gates is arguably one of the richest people in the world, which to some, is an excuse to have a revolving love life (see Donald Trump as an example). But Gates married Melinda French (later Gates) in 1994 and has stayed true all these years, despite a very heavy work schedule as Founder of Microsoft.

They have since founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which works to enhance healthcare and reduce poverty. It is interesting that the Foundation was named after them both. Bill Gates could have named it after himself. Instead, he chose to name the largest charitable organization in the world after himself and his wife.

It’s a clear sign that Bill Gates considers his wife as his equal partner in life. And there is no denying he is a success, and that his marriage is one too, because he made time for love.

Now why is a lovelife, or a significant other, or even a wife, seemingly so important for one’s success? For some, the significant other provides significant support in their work as well.

Anna C. Sobrepena, the wife of Chito Sobrepena, who is Executive Vice President of Metrobank, one of the largest banks in Southeast Asia, is a good example.

In a recent Inquirer article, Anna wrote about how she would “sit in conferences he participated in, attend workshops and meetings when it was allowable, and get a feel of the milieu he was immersed in most of the week.”

She would also make an effort to cultivate conversations and good company during the required dinner events every big corporation would have. This, no doubt, helped Chito do well in his occupation and his climb up the corporate ladder, and most probably encouraged him to make time for the love of his life, who always supported him.

The support of a loving wife or spouse can make all the difference even in politics. Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have one thing in common, for example. They have very successful marriages, even though one of these Presidents has been in some crazy controversies that should have sunk any normal relationship.

Nevertheless, no one would deny that their respective wives have been a great help and support during their years in politics. They all stayed in love, despite the heavy pressures and demands of work. And they stayed together, even despite controversies that plagued them to no end. They all made time for love, otherwise, it is possible that politics could have consumed them all.

So the clear and obvious message is this: being successful doesn’t necessarily mean sacrificing your love life. Making time for love may actually be what drives you to succeed instead.

Make Time For Love.