Don't Burn Out!

Christopher Williams

Founder, chairman, and CEO
The Williams Capital Group LP
New York, New York

Sometimes, the most relaxing thing that you can do is to give yourself time to get your work done. One of the greatest sources of stress is not being able to complete anything. I've found that it helps to set very clear boundaries.

In my case, that's easier said than done. I have the ultimate open-door policy: I sit right in the middle of the trading floor. It's the only way that I can keep abreast of what's going on. Since I don't have an office door that I can shut, I have to do other things to ensure that my energy and time don't get drained. For one thing, I make sure that people interrupt me only when it's absolutely necessary. Don't get me wrong: I'm on the floor in part because I want to be accessible. The key is to make sure that no one bothers me with aspects of the business that someone else should take care of. Unless a colleague makes it clear that interrupting me is necessary, I don't stop what I'm doing.

I also set aside one day every two or three weeks to clear the decks. On my regrouping days, my assistant knows not to book me for any meetings. Finally, I try to work better, not later. I used to work until 2 AM, regularly. When you work that late, you begin the next day tired and behind. You start making mistakes. You get sloppy. So I don't work that late anymore.

Christopher Williams founded the Williams Capital Group LP, a boutique investment bank, in 1994 as a spin-off of a division that he had formed at Jefferies & Co., a Los Angeles-based investment bank. Last year, this firm comanaged 34 underwritings, totaling $35 billion -- up from 8 transactions, totaling $4 billion, in 1998.

Jeff Gordon

Driver
Hendrick Motorsports -- no. 24 Dupont Team
Charlotte, North Carolina

I have a long season. It starts mid-February, and it runs until late November. I do about 34 400- to 500-mile races, and each one is usually a three-day event. That doesn't even include the things that my team does for sponsors -- commercials, photo shoots, special appearances -- all of which can be very draining. In some ways, that kind of work can be much harder than racing cars. But without our sponsors, we wouldn't be able to do what we do.

So I've had to learn to say no a lot. I never want to say no, especially to our sponsors. But if I didn't learn to say no, I wasn't going to be able to do my job. And my job is what got me the sponsors in the first place. I try to make sure that I have a full day off each week -- one day that's totally mine. On that day, my wife and I go to the beach or to the movies, or I get in the pool and do absolutely nothing.

Having that day is important if I'm going to be able to concentrate when I'm back in the car. Racing cars is intense work. It uses every muscle in your body. Even your eye sockets get sore, because of the G-force that takes you around the corners. You spend four hours in a car that's between 120 and 140 degrees inside, and you sweat out every fluid in your body. When you're out there doing 190 miles per hour, you'd better be able to focus. Because either you focus, or you hit something really hard.

Jeff Gordon won seven NASCAR races last year, becoming the first driver to win more races than any other driver for five consecutive years. He is a three-time winner of the Winston Cup, and in 1997, at age 25, he became the youngest driver ever to win the Daytona 500. Learn more about Gordon on the Web (www.jeffgordon.com).

Carisa Bianchi

President and CEO, San Francisco Office
TBWA/Chiat/Day
San Francisco, California

I worked on the Energizer Bunny campaign. And let me tell you, that little creature's very similar to advertising executives: We keep going and going.

That's why I try to set an example in my office. I draw a clear line between my work life and my personal life, and I expect my coworkers to do the same. Otherwise, we'll all burn out.

Everyone needs to leave work behind sometimes. I never work on airplanes -- no computer, no phone, no nothing. For most businesspeople, airplanes are their favorite place to work. But people in my office know not to expect anything from me when I'm flying. It's a hard-and-fast rule: Once I'm on the plane, my time is my time. I read books and magazines, and I listen to music -- things that I don't usually have time to do.

You can always find reasons to work. There will always be one more thing to do. But when people don't take time out, they stop being productive. They stop being happy, and that affects the morale of everyone around them.

Carisa Bianchi (carisa_bianchi@tbwachiat.com) has worked at the advertising firms Benton & Bowles and Doyle Dane Bernbach. In 1989, she joined Chiat/Day Los Angeles, where she worked for eight years. Under Bianchi's leadership, the Energizer Bunny campaign became one of the most famous advertising campaigns in the United States. In 1998, she became managing director of the TBWA/Chiat/Day San Francisco office, and in 1999 she was named that office's president and CEO.