language warning
Following on from my post on TechCrunch calling out Jason “penny pincher” Calacanis for his call that people who seek balance in their lives should be fired, Robert “I’ve never done a startup of my own in my life” Scoble responds with this bullshit:
Calacanis is right: startups can?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t afford?Ǭ†slackers
Jason Calacanis has started a big argument where Duncan Riley over at TechCrunch has stood up for slackers everywhere (he couches it in language of ?¢‚Ǩ?ìpro family?¢‚Ǩ¬ù in the family/life balance). The thing is, Duncan might talk to his boss, Mike Arrington. Did Mike get to where he is by slacking off and hanging out with his friends and having a ?¢‚Ǩ?ìreal life??¢‚Ǩ¬ù No. He worked his ass off. I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve caught Mike on several occasions working until 3 a.m. or later. And he still is doing that work ethic. Of course, that hard work pays off: Mike was on the Charlie Rose show this week.
So apparently if you spend time with your family your a slacker with no work ethic. Scoble can get fucked. I work fucking hard and although I may not get the balance side right, I always try to spend time with my family. That’s balance Scoble. Oh, and taking your son out to Tech events doesn’t count as family time 
No one is arguing that you shouldn’t expect people you employ to work hard. Calcanis argued that there shouldn’t be balance (balance was the word he used, until he backtracked later). You know what: if succeeding in a startup means turning into a grade A cunt by never seeing your family and treating your employees like shit, you can fuck that right over again.
You only live once. Having a balance is a good thing. You can have balance and work fucking hard, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. I know one thing for sure: no startup is worth losing my family over.