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In the mythology of company leadership, founders are expected to trade stability for scale. Long hours, constant travel, personal sacrifice. Family life is often framed as something to be balanced later, once the company is big enough to afford it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week, I spoke to Zack Levine from Checkout.com, who tells a different story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Levine leads Checkout.com\u2019s North American and Israel operations and moved to Israel two years ago from the United States. Today, he is preparing to return to the United States, this time to Dallas, Texas, ahead of the birth of his second child, another son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We spoke about family and how he sees it not as a constraint on leadership, but as the condition that makes leadership possible. His recent decision, he explained, was driven less by ambition than by a belief that professional performance depends on personal grounding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf I feel good about where things are in my family life, in my personal life, my outcomes at work are way better,\u201d he said. \u201cFamily comes first for me. Making sure that my wife and my kid are feeling good and happy. That\u2019s the most important. And then from there, I can build the best professional version of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nEmbed: