Greg McKeown has a nice piece on the Harvard Business Review blog about how, contra the example and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, he totally went to some random Very Important Client Meeting the day after his kid was born.
To my shame, while my wife lay in the hospital with my hours-old baby, I went to the meeting. Afterward, my colleague said, "The client will respect you for making the decision to be here." But the look on the clients' faces mirrored how I felt. What was I doing there?! I had not lived true to Gandhi's saying. I had said "yes" to please.I nearly had a very similar experience when the kid was being born, except instead of Gandhi it was Marky Mark.
I was writing for the NY Times a bit, and I'd just started talks with Mark Wahlberg's people to set up an interview about his competition proposal for the World Trade Center Memorial when we headed to the hospital. Since cell phones weren't permitted in the L&D rooms, I grabbed a landline phone, cords and all, and threw it in my go-bag. When I called my editor from the hospital, she was all, "You're crazy, don't do it." Which, wow, yes, no.
Detail from Mark Wahlberg's WTF Memorial Proposal, World Unity Fountain, which also included a prayer labyrinth
If You Don't Prioritize Your Life, Someone Else Will [hbr.org]
No link to the Wahlberg interview?
I didn't ever do it. Though Mark and I chatted about it later at some party. A treasured memory.