When I finished college, I crowdsourced my transition to corporate America. I asked for advice on a blog and got a lot of great feedback. Recently, I reviewed it. This one stuck out to me:

Never turn down a weekend with friends. Use some of that new hard-earned cash to continue building your friendships from college and maybe rebuild those ones that died while you were away studying.

As a founder I sometimes followed this advice, but I ended up saying no to many social events because I was too busy building a company. I regret saying no to some of those milestone events because they ended up being once-in-a-lifetime opportunities with friends—memories I wasn’t a part of.

I now approach this differently. When close friends or family invite me to something that’s a milestone, I try my hardest to attend and be totally present. The work will always be there, but opportunities to spend time with friends or family at milestone events are closing windows of opportunity that I want to take advantage of before they’re gone.

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