When I was 25 years old and David Fromer agreed to partner with me, I was delirious with excitement. And then he presented me with one demand that was non-negotiable: If we were to be partners, I would have to understand that he was likely to disappear from the office many weeks during the year—or simply put, as often as he wanted.

I wouldn’t have been more astonished if he had announced that he was a communist. I had grown up in a post–World War II culture where Americans at every level of the economy got an annual paid vacation of two weeks, maybe three for senior executives: my father had two or three weeks of vacation his entire career as an engineer and executive at NBC and RCA. At Goldman Sachs, we had two weeks of vacation. Even my father-in-law, who ran his own real estate company, seemed to take only two weeks of vacation, with a long weekend or two throughout the year. The idea of endless vacations seemed preposterous.

“I’m going to take a vacation whenever I see fit,” David explained. “But you can contact me any time you want. I’m available 365 days a year.” And he was. I never asked David where he developed his philosophy of vacations. Maybe it had something to do with his combat experience in World War II. David had been hit by shrapnel and passed out in a foxhole. When he woke up, he thought he was dead. From then on, he always felt like he was living on borrowed time, so he was determined to enjoy himself.

Not long ago I asked one of his sons-in-law if he had any idea where the idea of endless vacations came from. “If you asked David what the masterpiece of his career was, the answer would be his family. It was the center of his life,” he said. The long separations he’d endured when his family was in London and he was developing projects in Saudi Arabia made him all the more determined to carve out time for them.

David had lots of interests outside real estate—travel, art, and industrial design, for example. And maybe his insistence on disconnecting from the office had something to do with his idea that in an equal partnership neither partner should be looking over the other’s shoulder. David was confident enough in his own contribution to our adventure to step aside and let me handle the day-to-day operations of the company. Of course, with hindsight, I probably minimized how critical his involvement with bankers, tenants, and employees was—and he took part in every major hire and strategic decision. But he was smart enough to fool me into thinking I had more control than I probably did.

The idea that your office could be wherever you were has had a profound effect on my own managing style, freeing me up to spend time on the other things in my life that I care about, such as family, philanthropy, political causes, and art. I spent four years as the Official Volunteer Photographer for the Princeton men’s lacrosse team, on which my son played. Attending almost every game and taking photographs was a rewarding opportunity, while processing the pictures and producing four books was an added pleasure. More recently, I’ve been able to take the time to learn about Japanese art and culture.

Over the years, I’ve also learned that as much fun—or frustrating—as it could be in the trenches, the ability to get away from day-to-day concerns frees an entrepreneur to focus on the bigger picture, to keep an eye out for other opportunities, and to let the great team you have put together do what you hired them to do. For many business founders, it’s not an easy lesson to learn. Having built their companies by controlling every move and cent, they have difficulty accepting that their train can run as well (or better) without them.

Frank Rodriguez, whom we met in Lesson 26, started his company in 1993 and relentlessly worked to grow it for the next 12 years as founder and CEO. He kept long hours, often working on weekends, except for the “few weeks of vacation with my family, typical of most executives.”¹ Then, in April 2005, he learned that his 38-year-old brother had died in a kayaking accident in Africa. Frank was shattered. Friends and colleagues at work advised him to take some time off to give himself a chance to grieve and heal.

Frank decided to take a one-year sabbatical, and as a disciplined entrepreneur, he made sure he had a plan. He focused on three areas. “I fed my mind by reading books, watching films, and having interesting conversations,” he recalls. “I fed my body by exercising five days per week. And I fed my soul by helping others through volunteer work, such as mentoring high school students.” At the end of the year, Frank returned to his company ready in body and spirit to retake control of the daily operations at his company.

He discovered that, in his absence, Corporate Creations had had its best year ever. While that might have been enough to disorient some business founders into a depression, Frank was healthy enough to realize that his company was succeeding because “the management team that I had put together had filled the space.” During his sabbatical, he had thought about the things he wanted to do besides work. He and his wife established Corporate Creations Foundation, a nonprofit organization with the mission of improving educational opportunities and health care for children. He looked forward to traveling and spending more time with his wife and two sons.

On the business front, Frank was able to focus on what he enjoyed most about leading his own company: strategizing for the long term and developing the kind of leaders and staff he could continue to depend on. Both were goals he could achieve while spending most of his time away from the office. “I’ve achieved so much balance since 2006 by growing my leadership bench,” he says. “Each year I’ve gotten less and less involved in the details.” In 2014, with Corporate Creations continuing to grow “at 15 percent or more per year,” he successfully transitioned to chairman at the ripe old age of 50.

These days I also spend a lot of time away from the office. My guess is I am on 30 trips each year, and many are for multiple business reasons with a good number of vacations mixed in. For better or worse, I am taking endless vacations while being on call 24/7/365. Thanks to the magic of smartphones and the Internet, I’m in constant contact with my various partners and teams. Yes, smartphones have become a ball and chain, making it impossible to disconnect from office minutiae. But they have also liberated entrepreneurs and executives like me to be where we want while remaining able to be as connected as we feel we need to be.

There are lots of possible ways to lead one’s life, but the unusual level of creativity that distinguishes the talented entrepreneur does not arise in nonstop meetings and deal making. To stimulate creativity, you need to find ways to let your mind roam free. No matter what your career stage, it’s never too late to seek a better balance in your life. Get away from the office regularly. Give yourself some time to recharge your batteries and to think. It will be a win-win-win: for your team, for your family, and for you.