THE BALANCING ACT OF SUCCESS AND FAMILY

Words by Rachel Zammit Cutajar

Balancing business and family life is one of the many struggles of making it to the top. Do you give everything to your job at the detriment of family relationships in the name of success? Or do you create a cut-off point where family comes first even if that means you won’t make it to the top tiers? Dima Reiderman, COO of BtoBet, doesn’t believe you have to choose and juggles success and raising a young family, finding time to manage a multinational organisation while still making it home for dinner every night.

We all start our careers working to live but for the C level staff there comes a subtle shift to living to work, often without noticing.

With estimates of C level working times running from 10 to 14 hours a weekday – and numerous added hours at the weekend, time management becomes one of their most valuable tools. The phrase work-life balance paints a neat picture of someone who works eight hours a day, sleeps eight hours a day and then spends the remaining hours pursuing their own passion projects. This is rarely real life, mostly because people prioritise their lives differently. Some entrepreneurs spend upwards of 60 hours at the office and relish in the lifestyle while others need more time for family and friends.

There are time management techniques that can be utilised in order to become more effective and productive leaders, but for Dima Reiderman, COO of BtoBet, these techniques are more important in achieving a suitable work-life balance. Whether it’s taking the kids to their after-school activities, indulging in a Netflix binge or playing a game of chess, he somehow successfully juggles these activities while steering BtoBet to new heights.

Whilst work plays an important part in Dima’s life, there is no doubt where his top priority lies. “I’ll go as far as saying family life is more important than business. Managing both can be challenging – especially in an all-female household, but the secret, like in so many other areas of business, lies in planning.”

Dima is pretty strict when it comes to the time he spends with the children. He closes his laptop at 8pm at the very latest and will only take urgent calls after that. Some days he finishes up early, at 5pm, so he can take his daughters to their swimming and horse riding lessons after school. “We have a lot of business from South America, so it’s impossible to ban calls after 8pm (it’s when they are just starting their day!) however I make it a point to spend a few hours outside with the family every day, whether it’s at the beach or the park.”

Residing in Malta and with BtoBet’s main office in Northern Macedonia’s capital Skopje, another two offices in the Balkan country, and another in Italy, frequent travelling is part and parcel of Dima’s life, however even while he is away, he makes time to take a video call with his daughters every day. “No matter what is scheduled, be it dinner or meetings, I am unavailable at a certain time every night so that I can talk to my kids. And whatever happens I have to make it home for the weekend. While this was quite easy to do before COVID, as connections were easier, the post-COVID changes to the travel industry mean I’m often in very long and inconvenient transits, but I always make it home by Saturday morning – even if it means travelling all night.”

While Dima has always been an office man, working from home has taught him some valuable lessons about family life. “I really thought I was going to hate it. I thought it would be impossible to separate family from work, but I found the opposite was true. My partner’s support allowed me to use my time efficiently while working from home, but the fact that my eldest daughter came in every few hours with a cup of coffee and a biscuit really melted my heart. Another thing you don’t have time for while running a business is to take lunch with the family and for this, I was truly appreciative. Fitting in some family time during a working day is a blessing.”

The laws of supply and demand don’t only relate to economics but have their rightful place in time management too. As you work harder (and longer) at success, your personal time becomes scarcer and thus more valuable. While some may deem watching TV series a waste of time, for Dima it’s a way to wind down at the end of the day – a form of meditation that allows him to clear his mind and get a night of restful sleep. “My kids don’t go to bed until 10pm or 11pm and while this gives me more time to spend with them after a day’s work, it also leaves me with little time in the evening for myself. I love watching TV series, but I have to confess that I do cheat when I watch. I watch at 1.5 times the speed and I skip through the boring parts. It’s like speedreading… just with Netflix! And while I do that, I’m often multi-tasking and playing a game of chess. The most important thing is that it gives me time to disconnect, something I have recently learnt is imperative for clear thinking the next day.”

Dima compares chess to business. “You have to go in with a strategy, but you need to be completely flexible and open to change. While your opponent is making his move, you need to be a few steps ahead and have a plan for every possible action he may take. This is the same in business, except rather than opponents you have colleagues, partners, competitors, clients. All of these players make up the chessboard of the business world and you have to strategize to come out on top.” Perhaps it is the strategies of the game that allowed him to claim the title Rising Star in the 5-Star iGaming Media Awards.

Though time is precious, Dima likes to engage in activities at the weekend that encourage a total disconnect from working life. He has reconnected with some friends who go scuba diving and deems this the ultimate in detachment. “Diving allows a combination of factors that make a 40-minute dive more restful than a holiday. Firstly, you are totally unreachable when you’re underwater, the complete silence and the weightlessness of being submerged in the sea is something quite unique. I’d love to do this more often but find myself relying on other people to organise a day out.”

The key to achieving an effective work-life balance is reinforcement. While change is hard, doing something repeatedly forms a habit and if there is one thing Dima is great at, its forming healthy habits that allow for better time management both at the office and at home.