How do you manage stress and maintain work-life balance given the demands of your position?
I think people often think I’m stressed because I have a lot on my mind and a lot of things to do, but honestly, I don’t really feel stressed—and I’m hoping that continues. I’m working in a company that I was lucky to found, and I’ve got so many great people around me in this company—including a very skilled leadership team and strong co-investors. I’ve gotten so much pleasure on a daily basis from it that I don’t really find stress at all in it.
The only thing that does stress me is traffic. Now that I live in Florida, it’s hard to plan for traffic, especially if you don’t want to take two hours to do what normally would be one hour. It probably doesn’t help that I’m not so good at time management.
Anyway, I do tend to play golf. When I can do that with my son or my wife, that’s something that really takes away any lingering stress. Good conversation also really helps.
We understand that you have recently relocated with your family to the USA to consider how Bulk can expand its business into North America. How has the move affected your personal life and your ability to unplug?
Finding the right time to relocate is something that I believe all families with kids find challenging. We have discussed it on and off for some time, but having three teenagers, 16, 17 and 19 years old at the time, would not make it an easy decision. Our daughters decided to continue school in Norway, but our youngest did not have much choice but to come with us. Therefore, we promised that we would make sure that family and friends in Norway would be able to come and visit us as often as possible. Now, a year into our relocation soon, we can look back and see that we have been fortunate to have lots of visits from both friends and family. As we love watching sports and playing golf, we have found plenty of opportunities to make special memories both for us and for our guests. Splitting the family into two continents will take some time to get used to so we treasure the time we are together.
