August 30, 2024

Story [#7]

The greatest myth.

Or a minute of elusive balance

Who doesn’t dream of a balanced, harmonious life?

Definitely not me.

It sounds so perfect.

Harmony.

‍

Family.

Happy, healthy, caring, attentive, joyful.

Shared discoveries, events, experiences.

‍

Work.

Without sucking the life out of you.

Pure enjoyment.

A sense of fulfillment, purpose.

A stable income. High!

You need a lot for balance.

‍

Legacy and life's purpose.

Smart (and not) movies.

Exploration.

Free time.

Hobbies.

Friends.

Health.

Sports.

Travel.

Music.

Books.

Sleep.

Sex.
‍

X-Pert

Did I miss anything?

The Founder

What kind of balance doesn’t include all the important things?

X-Pert

Let’s add more!

‍

And this is not even the best part.

‍

The juggler.

Juggling heavy clubs.

High up on a tightrope.

‍

Add:

Rain
Siberian frost
A burning rope
Hurricane winds
Wild saber-toothed tigers

‍

It’s not always fun for everyone.

Is taking out the trash part of the balance or not?

What about the window the kids broke (luckily, they didn’t get hurt)?

‍

Life is full of pleasant and unpleasant surprises.

Anything can happen at any moment.

‍

Maybe the rich and famous have found balance?

One becomes a monk, another grinds 16 hours a day, and another seems to have lost their mind completely.

How about the trust-fund babies?

Not a chance.

‍

Everyone’s chasing this fully balanced life.

And me, of course. Why would I be any different?

‍

But.

‍

There is no such thing as balance.

It’s a myth.

Balance is a process, not a state.

It’s a constant dance:

This is on fire.
That’s broken.
Something fell off.
Over here, it’s dried up.

‍

And when you understand and accept that,

You discover the main secret.

‍

X-Pert

Life is constant change. There are no static systems.

X-Pert

Even "dead" matter is constantly changing due to entropy.

The Founder

So if that’s the case, then obsessing over not being able to reach this balance is just wasting your energy and time on meaningless suffering.

X-Pert

People always want more. There’s always something new to chase after.

‍

Spend time with family, but don’t lose your mind when you need to push hard at work...

And vice versa.

‍

Just live.

Live your life.

Solve problems.

Help when you can.

Love when you feel it.

Be happy when there’s a reason.

‍

It’s constant motion.

That’s. Just. How. It. Is.

‍

If you want to know more about other mess-ups and lessons on my entrepreneurial journey — subscribe to Eugene’s Stories.

‍

See you soon!

- Eugene

And one more thing.

A quick video I made on the topic. Might be useful.

That’s all for today. See you next week.
— Eugene

Three ways forward from here:

1. Keep reading.

Every Friday, new story. New lesson. Free.

2. The Founder Decison Kit (free)

4 tools to find where your agency is quietly losing $3K-$8K every month. And fix it.
This kit is the foundation I wish I'd had in year 5 instead of year 15.

→ Explore The Founder Decision Kit

3. Need deeper 1-on-1 strategy work?

A 60-minute 1:1 Strategy Session for founders ready to fix operational bottlenecks.

→ Book a Strategy Call

Join founders building businesses that last.

And get free The Different Tuesday Kit. The tools I wish I’d had while scaling my agency.

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Hi, I’m Eugene.

My first daughter was six months old when I quit my job to start an agency. Leap of faith.
‍
No clients. No savings.
A laptop in the bedroom and a promise to my wife that this would be worth it.
‍
20 years later — 80 people, 3 continents, 7-figure revenue.
But for many years, I was the bottleneck in my own business.
‍
Now I help founders escape the same trap. Through systems that actually work, not theory.

I write weekly: operational war stories, decision systems, and lessons learned the hard way.
‍
For founders who want to build without burning out.

Founder Stories

October 2, 2026

They called his wife instead of doing their job

Or minute of understanding what people actually optimize for

We talked about weather, life, work — the usual things people talk about when they don't know each other yet and the drinks are cold. One of them turned out to be a production manager at a small manufacturing facility. I've always been curious how lessons from physical production compare to what I learned running a software agency, so we got deep into it pretty quickly. Then he told me a story that I haven't been able to stop thinking about.

September 25, 2026

The IKEA founder ruined my thinking for years

Or minute of realizing my hero was actually my excuse

For most of my career, I had a hero I never talked about publicly. The founder of IKEA. The man who built one of the most recognized brands on the planet — and almost nobody knew what he looked like. No TED talks. No social media presence. No autobiography tour. He lived modestly, stayed out of the spotlight, and let the brand speak for itself. For an introvert who'd spent his whole life avoiding attention — never the class president, never the organizer, never the one who raised his hand first — this was the perfect model.

September 18, 2026

Spyware for the team trust

Or minute of choosing what I actually needed to know

When my agency was small enough to fit in one room, I had the best monitoring system in the world: my legs. I'd walk up to a designer's desk, lean over, look at the screen. "What are you working on? Show me." Then I'd wander over to a developer, ask the same thing. Sometimes I'd sit down next to them and start giving advice — how to do it better, what I'd change, what I'd seen on a similar project. Then I'd drift to the next desk.

Join founders building businesses that last.

And get free The Founder Decision Kit. 4 checks before you spend another $30K+ fixing the wrong problem.

Thank you!
Didn’t get the email?
Make sure to check your spam folder.

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

The greatest myth.

Or a minute of elusive balance