Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab, during the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Aerospace Summit in Washington, D.C., Sept 14, 2022.
Building and launching rockets into space can require around-the-clock attention. Just ask Peter Beck.
Beck, the founder and CEO of Long Beach, California-based aerospace company Rocket Lab, typically works 12-hour to 20-hour days, especially during busy periods leading up to rocket launches, a company spokesperson says. That time commitment makes striking a healthy balance between work and a personal life difficult, says Beck, 47.
"[I'm] not winning any awards for any of that," Beck says. "That is for sure."
Beck started Rocket Lab in 2006 with no college degree and few industry connections. Over nearly two decades, he's built it into a $12.93 billion business, as of Wednesday morning. The company's success contributes largely to Beck's net worth — $1.3 billion, Forbes estimated last month.
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During his busiest workdays, Beck employs "workarounds" to spend time with his family, he says. He typically goes home for dinner with his family, and then heads back to the office — or logs onto his computer from home — to keep working "late into the night," he says.
"I try and have dinner with the kids, for sure. There's little things like that," Beck says. "If I'm traveling overseas [for work], we'll try as best we can to time it for school holidays so the family can come with [me]."
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Beck also calls himself a "chronic workaholic" and "paranoid about everything." He rises each morning before 5 a.m. and spends the bulk of his days at the office fretting over his business and the technical aspects of each rocket his company launches into space, he says.
"That's just what it takes," says Beck. "That's just the gig."
Sacrificing for success
Many startup founders report working long hours and stressing over details. Beck's industry comes with an additional degree of difficulty: Each rocket launch could result in a potentially dangerous catastrophe.
"It's either right or it's international news, one of those two outcomes," says Beck. "So you'd best be checking [every] thing three or four times."
Rocket Lab operates launch pads in both New Zealand and the U.S., and launches sometimes have to wait until weather conditions are perfect and all safety checks are completed — meaning Beck has to be available at all hours. That means some sleepless nights and less time spent with his family than he'd like, Beck says.
Beck's situation is perhaps an extreme version of a relatable challenge: Many working parents struggle to schedule extra time for themselves and their families. Achieving a perfect balance is generally unrealistic and an added source of stress, Jackie Bowie, a managing partner at financial risk management firm Chatham Financial, told CNBC's "My Biggest Lessons" last year.
"If you're doing something that's really worthwhile to you, and you enjoy it, you just accept that sometimes it's going to be really hard work and you have to make sacrifices," Bowie said.
Todd Graves, co-founder and CEO of restaurant chain Raising Cane's, "had to miss a lot of stuff" in his personal life while building his business into a multibillion-dollar company, he told CNBC Make It last month.
At times, Graves' wife brought their kids to his office so the family could play and eat dinner together before he returned to his work. On vacations, Graves has woken up at 4:30 a.m. to work, so he could join his family for leisure time during everyone else's waking hours, he said.
"I'm as busy as anybody I know, I travel as much as anybody I know, but I can work my schedule where I can make most of the things I need to be at with kids, family or important friends," said Graves.
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