Discovering the Work-Life Balance with Benjamin Arya, the Joint Founder and CEO of Sindy Labs
Benjamin Arya, the founder of Sindy Labs and an angel investor at Fractal Fund, discusses his extraordinary journey from experimenting with entrepreneurship in his youth to leading a significant enterprise SaaS company. In this interview, we delve into how his diverse experiences have shaped his business approach and strategies for balancing innovation with a demanding industry.
Background
At 12 years old, Arya dreamt of bottling Australian air and selling it in China; by 14, he was importing counterfeit Yeezys from China for sale in Australia. Known for his competitive nature, Arya strived to excel academically and in extracurricular activities, earning the title of 'Mr Oh Not Him Again'. With aspirations to cure cancer, Arya pursued a highly competitive academic path, ultimately securing a scholarship at the University of Melbourne. There, he studied a diverse range of subjects, including science, finance, negotiation, and business before gaining admission to one of Australia's top medical schools.
However, Arya realized that building a superior system required escaping the limitations of the existing one. During his first year of medical school, he established an enterprise SaaS startup at the intersection of AI and Education, dropped out of medical school, and moved to San Francisco.
Workday Routine
Arya follows a maker and manager day structure, allocating meetings, administrative tasks, and team sync-ups to Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and weekends are reserved for creative work. A typical Thursday might consist of a morning workout, followed by a co-working session with his team, design sync-ups, engineering workshops, lunch with lamb shank and rice, interviews with job candidates, introductory chats, focused tasks, dinner with his partner, email administration, and meditation.
Work-Life Balance
Arya defines work-life balance as striking a harmony between making progress toward personal goals without neglecting health, family, and relationships. While he values spending time with loved ones, he is willing to prioritize work commitments when necessary. Balancing calm and warlike periods is essential for building a generational company, Arya believes.
Lifestyle Changes
To improve his work-life balance, Arya has adopted several habits. Turning off his laptop after 11 pm was a recent change, as he found himself answering emails late into the night and feeling depleted the following day. Other changes include hiring a personal trainer, drinking matcha in the mornings, scheduling downtime in the evenings, blocking meditation time, and batching emails. Arya continues to seek solutions for managing emails effectively and would appreciate recommendations for a good virtual assistant.
Recommended Resources
Arya suggests several books, podcasts, and newsletters that have aided him in his quest for balance: "Waking Up" by Sam Harris, "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl, "Atomic Habits" by James Clear, "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg, Huberman Lab, and Founder podcast. Arya emphasizes the importance of creating time for reading and listening to enriching content.
Final Words of Wisdom
Arya encourages readers to remember that everything around them was built by people no smarter than themselves. He advises against following traditional pathways and exhorts individuals to create their own balance and build their lives on their terms. A strong leader, such as Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, often makes sacrifices to construct a legacy, Arya cautions. Striving for excellence necessitates being different.
- Benjamin Arya's diverse experiences in entrepreneurship, spanning from selling counterfeit Yeezys to establishing an AI-based education startup, have significantly influenced his business strategies.
- In his journey, Arya transitioned from a competitive academic path in science, finance, negotiation, and business to atypical self-directed learning in technology and education-and-self-development, demonstrating his adaptability.
- Balancing innovation and industry demands is a crucial aspect of Arya's career in business, which he has addressed through a structured workday routine that allows for personal-growth activities like meditation and downtime.
- Arya recommends resources such as "Waking Up" by Sam Harris, "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl, and podcasts like Huberman Lab and Founder, emphasizing education-and-self-development as essential for building a successful and balanced lifestyle in careers like finance, entrepreneurship, and technology.
