Jay Littlepage: Life In Balance?

Life in Balance?

I named my blog "Life in Balance?" for a number of reasons, but
mostly as a question to regularly ask myself.  Today is a good day
to finally explain it.

First, it seems to surprise people that an executive at Sun has a
life. As a matter of fact one of the main reasons i've finished up my 16th year
at Sun is because the people i've worked with are fun and interesting no
matter what their level. True, it's harder to carve out time the higher
you go but not impossible, and not unusual - if you make it a priority.


I've always been a family first kind of guy. I always kept my family
life separate from my work life - I would put in the requisite long
hours at work but was really good at leaving it in the office. That's
what started to fray. Traveling a lot, having staff worldwide and
needing to communicate with them during their day, simply having a lot
to do - all made the separation i'd been proud of all these years
increasingly difficult. Ultimately it led me to request a leave of
absence from Sun - and to my great pleasure and gratitude Sun
agreed. 

One of the many things that I learned about myself during
my time off was that the boundaries i'd created simply weren't relevant
anymore. Separating "work" and "life" was always somewhat artificial, but in a
global economy it had become a real problem for me. My family is a
passion. Good health and the ability to use it (running, skiing) is a
passion. My avocation (woodturning) is a passion. And so was my
vocation (Sun). Why couldn't they co-exist? The answer, of course, is that they
could. And since my return last November, they have.

I learned one other thing about myself during the leave - and that was
that I really enjoyed gnarly, complex, challenging leadership roles
that mattered not only in my company, but in the market. 
It is part of what makes me tick.  And since my return
there just hasn't been a role at Sun that fit that bill.  In short
- life hasn't been in balance. 

So the time has come to move on to a new adventure.  Sun is a
fabulous company stocked to the gills with extremely talented
individuals and i'm more bullish about Sun than I have been in
years.  So to my friends I leave behind - keep putting out great
products and services - i'm still an investor!