The most popular question I get from friends, family, business partners, clients, etc. is: “where do you find the time?”
For those who don’t know, I am not only the founder of Preferences, but also the founder of AppDev Peterborough, an avid Judo athlete at the Trent Judo Club, a musician with The Crux, a community volunteer for the City of Peterborough Youth Commission and New Canadian’s Centre, and a one-to-one worker with youth through the Youth Emergency Shelter. Also, I teach and grade papers at Trent University during the school year. So, where do I find the time to do all of those things and still have time to spend time with my wife Elizabeth, my Goddaughter Madeleine and family and friends?
To be quite honest, I’m not quite sure; however, I can tell you that my house does not have a television, I get 8 solid hours of sleep each night and I treat all of my professional aspirations like a hobby. What I mean by “hobby” is that I have to love what I am doing so that I can spend my entire day, from morning to evening, working on all the things that will lead me to success. Don’t get me wrong, I need some time away from work too, and I do that through music, Judo, spending time with friends and family, and I always try to keep my work outside of those times. The secret ingredient is to perform my hobbies to the absolute best of my abilities.
The pivotal point in my life was when I was 21-years old. I was an avid gamer until one day I quit cold turkey. I threw out my gaming system (Nintendo 64) and even deleted minesweeper and solitaire off of my computers. That is when I became heavily involved in student politics, music, work, and other productive things. Still today, I see people who are heavily entrenched in escaping reality in a variety of ways and wonder how successful they would be if they made their “hobby” their life.
It seems like I am always adding something and rarely taking things away from my daily activities. Perhaps I am becoming better at managing my “hobbies” and learning when to say no to certain activities. In the near future, I will be adding another “hobby” called Politics, where I will be collaborating with people across Ontario to form the next political order. It sounds big, but if I make it just another thing that I love doing, it may just pay off at some point in the future.
Paul Teleki, Founder of Preferences
