The 3 Types of People You Need in Your Life

Do your personal relationships affect your potential for professional success? Does your home life impact your ability to be a good leader?

“Let’s say this. I’m not sure that a good home is an asset, but I’m sure that a bad home is a liability,” Bishop T.D. Jakes says with a chuckle.

Jakes, pastor of The Potter’s House Church in Dallas and founder of TDJ Enterprises, says a stable personal and home life become more and more important as you grow professionally.

“Lambs give birth in calm places,” he says. “And if you’re going to birth great ideas, you need calmness, the serenity of having something stable to balance having everything not stable.” 

“At the end of the day, I’m not necessarily smarter at work because things are going good at home, but when things are going bad at home, I’m a lot more distracted. I’m a lot more disheveled. I’m not present in the moment because a part of me is still grappling with what’s going on at the house.”

Find a balance.

Jakes says the balance of healthy personal relationships—whether at home or in your social support—is critical in maintaining your mental health, as well as your professional potential.

“At work, you are defined by what you do. At home, you are loved for who you are,” he says. “Who you are will always outgun what you do. If you don’t have that balance, you’ll get consumed with what you do and lose sight of who you are. And what you do will eat up who you are—until all you are is what you do. And that’s where depression and suicide begin to cave in on you because balance in greatness is absolutely critical. The higher you go at anything, the more deeply you have to be rooted in something or you lose your balance. I don’t care who you are.”

Jakes says you have to be intentional about that balance and work to create it. The bigger you get as a company or an organization, the harder you have to work at home to get that balance or everything you’ve worked all your life to build will turn around and devour you.

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