Dominic Orr, Story Of A Workaholic…

You wake up at dawn just like every day, take part in your daily morning dose of coffee and news. Your family is still asleep, the argument you had with your son is now just a blur in your memory. The thoughts of your current project at work are the main things on your mind as you think of your busy day. You walk out towards your car and you notice the glass on the driveway. As you look up the body of your dark-green Infiniti Sedan is covered with deep dents, windows broken, and smashed taillights. The shock pauses your thoughts of the day ahead and you wonder who could of possibly done this to your car? This is what happened on a spring morning in 1998 to Dominic Orr, CEO of Alteon Websystems of that time.

Around here we preach that hard work is needed in order to attain our goals. Without putting in work you will get no where. However, as with all things you have to set a healthy limit for your self and always be in control. Dominic Orr worked eighteen to twenty hour days on a regular basis. His wife, Teresa, and his two children, Alvin and Adria, did not see very much of him. Dominic Orr has had an incredible career working for HP and taking Alteon Websystems public, which was bought for nearly $8 billion. He prided himself on being “ruthlessly aggressive” at work. He climbed up the corporate ladder quickly and took charge of his career. Without long hours and hard work would he of gotten as far as he had in his career? Most likely not. In our competitive society it is the ones who put in the most effort and most dedication that come out on top. This can easily be a scary society to be a part of as it can overtake you and you can lose control of your life.

Dominic Orr’s marriage had fallen apart, him and his wife constantly argued about his lack of a relationship with their children and how he was always working. His son, 15 year old Alvin, was very distant and kept to his teenage cell phone conversations. Knowing his time was limited with his children he demanded everyone to join together at the table for dinner. His son, caught up in his long distance cell phone conversation, did not meet the family at the dinner table. Dominic threatened to take away Alvin’s computer away for racking up another $200 long distance bill and for keeping his family waiting at the dinner table. He lost his temper with his son and had a horrible argument. Arguments were not uncommon in his house and this was just another night. His son Alvin was full of rage, not only was his home life a mess, but his long distant relationship with his girlfriend had ended during the cell phone conversation that made him miss dinner. Angry at his father not only for stopping his cell phone conversation, but for not being there and causing havok in his family. He took a fireplace poker to his dad’s car, when the fireplace poker had had enough, he followed with his skateboard.

“I was going for maximum cost of repair by damaging separate parts of the car” said Alvin. “I tried to destroy something that mattered to him.”

Dominic was extremely successful in his corporate life, had a great position and made a lot of money. However his family had fallen apart. Had he not worked so hard and put it so many hours, his family could of possible escaped some of these problems. Does your hard work get in the way of your personal life? Have you had fights with your significant other been caused because of your long hours at work?

Dominic Orr found himself in a therapist’s office not knowing what to do about his broken home. With the help of a therapist and a decision to put his family first, Orr slowly got his life back. He know has a healthy relationship with not only his son, but the rest of his family.

Hard work is needed to succeed in our society, however, success at work alone cannot bring you complete happiness. Do not forget about your personal life and the people in it. Whether it is your family or your friends make sure you do not compromise those relationships because work has consumed you. Work hard, but work smart. Life is more than just work, success is measured by how content you are. Success is knowing what happiness is and being able to smile everyday.

*information for this story was inspired from Fortune Magazine Confession of a CEO article.

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