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| Mohamed El-Erian |
Best wake-up call ever? We say yes. Unless your wake-up call involves
a pile of kittens pouncing all over you and a plate of bacon waiting on
the nightstand.
When
Mohamed El-Erian, who up
until recently was chief executive of the investment fund Pimco, left
his job this past January, rumors of internal conflict ran rampant. But
in an article he wrote for
Worth magazine,
Mohamed gave his reason for stepping down and it's probably the best
reason we've ever heard for leaving a job. Besides winning the lottery
or deciding to dedicate your life to finding the cure for cancer.
The
56-year-old revealed that during a little argument with his 10-year-old
daughter about a year ago, she gave him a list of all the important
events and activities that he had missed due to his work schedule.
"The list contained 22 items, from her first day at school and first
soccer match of the season to a parent-teacher meeting and a Halloween
parade. And the school year wasn't over," he wrote. "I felt awful and
got defensive: I had a good excuse for each missed event! Travel,
important meetings, an urgent phone call, sudden to-dos…But it dawned on
me that I was missing an infinitely more important point."
According to the
Telegraph,
Mohamed would start his day at 2:45 a.m., be at the office by 5:45 a.m.
and would not return home until 7 p.m. But that's all changed now.
He
stepped down from his high-powered position to take a job that has
fewer work commitments and shorter hours. Mohamed is now chief economic
adviser at Allianz, and he says he is "grateful to experience key
moments" with his daughter.
"I now alternate with my wife in
waking up our daughter every morning, preparing her breakfast and
driving her to school," he wrote. "I'm also around much more often to
pick her up after school and take her to activities. She and I are doing
a lot of wonderful talking and sharing. We've even planned a holiday
together, just the two of us."
He also notes that he is aware of how fortunate he is to be able to
find a flexible job and structure his life a certain way to be with his
family more.
"Unfortunately, not everyone has this luxury," he
said. "But hopefully, as companies give more attention to the importance
of work-life balance, more and more people will be in a better position
to decide and act more holistically on what's important to them."
Source; eonline.com
