Ben's 1x1x1 - It's all work - October 9, 2026 🚀

For those of you that are new here, every week I send what I call a 1x1x1.

One thought from my week. One interesting find/tool from my week. One image from my life.

Let’s dive in 👇

Thought from the week

I was at a coffee meeting this week, cappuccino in hand, contemplating whether or not to buy a slice of banana bread (telling myself the very false story that I had “earned it”) when the person sitting across from me asked:

“How much do you work in a week?”

My answer was probably a little different than she expected.

Outside of the broken sleep I get with a 4 month old next to our bed, pretty much all of it feels like work to me.

And I don’t mean that in the “I’m grinding 80 hours a week and hate my life” kind of way.

Quite the opposite.

The work is challenging at times, but it’s also incredibly fulfilling.

Here’s what I mean when I say “It’s all work”.

There’s the obvious work I do with my businesses.

Showing up.

Being accountable to myself, my team, and my partners.

Solving problems.

Building things.

Creating assets that hopefully make other people’s lives a little better while supporting the life my family wants to live.

But then there’s the work that has nothing to do with a company.

There’s the work of being a great dad.

For me, that means spending the first 2 hours of every morning with my girls, and the last 3-4 hours of every day with them.

Reading books.

Making breakfast.

Changing diapers.

Saying no to the request for tractor wheel snack 20 time throughout the day.

There’s the work of being a good husband.

Organizing babysitters.

Planning date nights.

Ordering the random coffee I know Amelia likes.

Taking the girls so she can get an extra hour of sleep.

Basically trying to be a good teammate in the most important partnership I have.

There’s the work of being a great friend.

Organizing trips.

Sending the random voice memo because someone popped into my head.

Playing phone tag with the same three friends for six consecutive days.

There’s the work of being a member of my community.

Hosting happy hours.

Donating to nonprofits.

Advising startups around Bend.

And, apparently, becoming the neighborhood’s unofficial trash collector because I can’t walk past a piece of garbage without picking it up.

And then there’s the work I do on myself.

Trying to be a little less hard on myself.

Squeezing in 20 minutes of exercise.

Getting one mountain bike ride in a week.

Meditating for 10 minutes in the morning.

Trying to protect the most important asset in my life:

Me.

Which sounds incredibly self-important until you realize that if that asset goes to shit, pretty much everything else does too.

I’ve started thinking about all of this as work.

Not because I want life to feel like a job.

But because all of these things require intention.

They require showing up.

They require saying no to something else.

And, occasionally, they require doing something you don’t particularly feel like doing because you know the person you want to become is on the other side of it.

And I find all of it rewarding.

The business work.

The dad work.

The husband work.

The friend work.

The community work.

The work on myself.

Maybe that’s my version of work-life balance.

Not trying to work less.

But making sure the things I’m working on are actually creating the life I want.

So my question for you this weekend:

What does “work” look like for you?

And are you spending your time working on the things that actually create balance and fulfillment in your life?

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some very important work to do.

There is banana bread to earn.

Find from my week

My buddy Greg sent me this podcast episode with Adam Neumann, and it was fascinating.

He’s obviously a founder with a pretty wild story, but what I found most interesting was how intentional he is about the way he thinks about work, ambition, and life.

If you’re curious what actually happened with WeWork, he’s surprisingly transparent about it, including the role ego played along the way.

A really interesting listen, especially if you’re a founder or just interested in the messy intersection of ambition and a good life.

WeWork Founder: His $47 Billion Empire Collapsed! | Adam Neumann

Image from my life

My parents came to town this past weekend and we had a wonderful visit.

It also included a dinner where Parker drank approximately half a lemonade and proceeded to experience the ultimate sugar rush of her life.

She was absolutely flying.

I’m pretty sure we got to see what it would look like if someone gave a toddler a Red Bull and then released them in one the nicer restaurants in Bend 😂

See you all next week!