It’s not a deal gone wrong. It’s not hiring the wrong person. It’s not even missing out on a massive opportunity.
No, the greatest regret Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian hears from his fellow entrepreneurs is entirely personal—and has been echoed by some of the most successful founders of our time.
Writing on Elon Musk’s social media platform X—formerly known as Twitter—the father of one said the regret from peers he hears most frequently is “I wish I’d spent more time with my kids.”
The tech titan who shares a daughter with tennis legend Serena Williams continued, “You can have the most successful career in the world and, turns out, that still won’t make up for missing time with your kids.”
When it comes to successful careers, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates is likely high in the rankings. But even the man worth $133 billion said he wishes he’d spent more time with family.
In a recent commencement speech to the forestry and engineering graduates of Northern Arizona University, Gates told his audience: “You are not a slacker if you cut yourself some slack. When I was your age, I didn’t believe in vacations. I didn’t believe in weekends. I pushed everyone around me to work very long hours.”
But a so-called new generation of CEOs is emerging, Ohanian added, who are working hard to get the balance right when it comes to their priorities: “CEOs around me are starting to understand this and want to be amazing leaders, partners, and dads.
“It’s like a whole new era of fatherhood is emerging—we are trying to do our best work, but show up in ways our dads didn’t (or couldn’t).”
No matter what career accolades I achieve, fatherhood will be the best thing I ever do.
— Alexis Ohanian 🧠 (@alexisohanian) August 6, 2023
Ohanian, who is now expecting a second daughter with the 23-time Grand Slam holder, added the much-touted mission to find a proper work-life balance shouldn’t be the end goal: “It’s a harmony, not a balance.
“I’m finding that harmony now, and it brings me comfort that there’s a whole generation of CEOs/founders/dads finding it with me.”
Musk and Zuck on fatherhood
Ohanian isn’t the only tech founder to discuss how having children has influenced his life—and business decisions.
In 2010 Tesla CEO Elon Musk penned a piece for Business Insider about his life as a then father of five.
The Twitter owner wrote his boys—whom he shares custody of with ex-wife Justine Musk—were the “love of [his] life,” adding: “Almost all of my nonwork waking hours are spent with my boys.”
Meanwhile Musk’s rival—Facebook cofounder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—said having children had changed his outlook on life “pretty dramatically.”
In 2017 the father of three told students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University: “I used to have meetings that ran really late. But now, I make sure that three times a week, I’m home to give [eldest daughter Maxima] a bath.”
The Threads founder, reportedly worth $111 billion, added: “The thing that I’m most proud of, and the thing that brings me the most happiness, is my family.”