Life changed for the family during that time as well. Emily discovered the pleasure of "meeting for lunch, going shopping, or just hanging around the house on Sunday" with her mom. "She was trying her hardest for us to be a family instead of always working," she recalls. Scott, who in 1998 was finishing up college and playing on the baseball team in Spartanburg, S.C., notes that even though he was much farther from home, his mom attended more of his games than when he played as a high schooler in Rochester. "My parents would come down twice a month during the season to catch games," he recalls. And for their oldest son, Brian, Yaniszewski could finally begin to imagine a more independent life. A survivor of childhood brain cancer, Brian, now 29, had always lived at home. But part of Yaniszewski's ever-evolving life plan was to save enough money to buy a small house for her son; he moved in last December. Her only regret is that she didn't begin creating and following a life plan years ago, when her children were younger. "I think entrepreneurs just assume that the business should consume your life and that that's normal," she says. "I wish that I had stepped back sooner and thought of how I could change things to make it all work better."
As for Yaniszewski's goal to spend more time with her husband, the couple started seeing much more of each other in 1999, when Tom signed on full-time as ExecuScribe's CFO. It wasn't always a blissful partnership. "Our offices were right next to each other, and that was a disaster," Tom recalls. "She'd hear me on the phone then come into my office and say, 'Why did you do it that way?" He eventually moved down the hall. By their own admission, the two of them are complete opposites. He's detail-oriented, and her strength lies in envisioning the big picture. She's outgoing, while he's more private. She's a Democrat, and he's a Republican. And Tom's obsession with morning talk radio even compelled Linda to insist that they take separate cars to work. She drives her Mercedes C-Class and listens to classic rock while his Toyota Sequoia is tuned to Rush Limbaugh.
The drive to work is not as short as it used to be. By October 2000, the Yaniszewskis figured it was finally time to move out of their middle-class suburban neighborhood. The kids were grown, the business was booming, and a significantly higher mortgage payment seemed quite manageable. So with lingering memories of the house they had seen four years earlier, they put money down on a lot with the intention of replicating it from the ground up. On their way out to dinner to celebrate that major milestone, Yaniszewski saw an "Open House" sign pointing down a familiar road. They turned off the main road and held their breath, unsure of what to hope for. But when Yaniszewski saw prospective buyers eyeing the dream house that had served as a touchstone for so long, it was as if she was on autopilot. She boldly marched up to the realtor and declared, "You'll want to ask these people to leave my house now."
Here's the somewhat sticky thing about a life plan: You're never really finished with it until, well, you get the picture. Goals that were on the bottom of your list move to the top, some get tweaked, new ones get created, and some get crossed off altogether. You may even discover that some are at cross-purposes with one another. Which is why it's important to review it constantly, as the Yaniszewskis do--once a week for short-term goals and monthly for long-term ambitions. So where's the spontaneity, you might well ask? Doesn't excessive planning rob you of the ability to be impulsive and maybe even a little reckless once in a while? Yaniszewski insists that she isn't wedded to her plan. It's not a programmed flight pattern so much as a road map that allows for diversions. Besides, she remembers only too well what life was like without the plan. So does her son Scott.
"She used to tell us, 'If any of you decide to be an entrepreneur after seeing what I've gone through, you're crazy," he says. " Now, she doesn't understand why anyone would want to be anything else."
And the house? While Emily has yet to walk down the spiral staircase in a wedding gown, the Yaniszewskis just had their third annual Christmas party, complete with an 18-foot evergreen and a string quartet.
The Well-Balanced Life
- The Turnaround
- How a life plan charted the course of one company and its owner. By Donna Fenn.
- Not sure how to devise your own life plan?
- Use this worksheet to help get you on your way to developing a life plan that benefits you personally and benefits your business.
- Got Game?
- When life makes you want to call a time-out, perhaps it's time to call in a coach. By Jess McCuan.
- Need help getting your life into shape?
- Resources to help you get your life into shape. By Stephanie Clifford
- Paid Time Off
- Avocations become side businesses for entrepreneurs mixing work and pleasure. By Stephanie Clifford.
