How do you live a balanced life, including prioritizing your faith and your family while achieving ambitious goals in the workplace? Christian family man, silicon titan, and former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has some answers to this age-old question. Join us as we talk to Pat about his book, The Juggling Act: Bringing Balance to Your Faith, Family, and Work.
Welcome to Business Books and Company. Every month we read great business books and explore how they can help us navigate our careers. Read along with us so you can become a stronger leader within your company or a more adept entrepreneur. But before we get to the book and talk to Pat, let's introduce ourselves. Hi, I'm David Short. I'm a product manager.
I'm Kevin Hudak, Chief Research Officer at a DC-based commercial real estate research and advisory firm.
And I'm David Copc. I'm an associate professor of computer science at a teaching college.
This month we are pleased to be joined by silicon legend Pat Gelsinger to talk about his 2008 book, The Juggling Act: Bringing Balance to Your Faith, Family, and Work. Starting his career at Intel at 18, in less than a decade Pat rose through the engineering ranks to become the Chief Architect of the highly successful and influential i486 microprocessor. In the 1990s, he became the youngest vice president in Intel history, and in 2001 he became the company's first ever CTO. After 30 years at Intel, in 2009 Pat joined EMC as its president and COO. In 2012 he became the CEO of VMware, and in 2021 he rejoined Intel to become its CEO. From 2021 to 2024, Pat led the turnaround and revitalization of Intel through his visionary five nodes and four-year strategy, which is bearing fruit with Intel expected to leapfrog other foundries with node leadership by the end of 2025. Beyond his technical acumen and accomplishments, Pat is known as one of the few tech leaders to be unabashedly open about his Christian faith. Pat has four grown children with his wife Linda, whom he's been married to for more than four decades. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Santa Clara University and a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Stanford University, both of which we might note he completed while working full-time at Intel during his early career. Pat, thank you so much for joining us on the program.
Thank you. Great to be with you today.
So Pat, let's start with the genesis of the book. You were the CTO of Intel when you wrote both the first edition and the second edition of the book. Why would the CTO of Intel write a book like this?
Well, it turns out that I had helped to start the Intel Christian Bible Network at Intel, sort of the precursor of today's ERGs, right? Employee resource groups and faith-oriented groups that support those of faith in the workplace. And they had asked me to give a talk, and the outline for that talk was the outline of The Juggling Act at the time. So I gave the talk at one campus internally, then another one, then another one. And after I'd given the talk like 20 times internally, it became popular externally. So I'd given it like 15 more times externally. And my mentor at the time said, 'You got to write a book.' And I said, 'I don't have time to write a book.' And he says, 'But you have time to give all these talks, you do have time to write a book.' So I spent the next year on long flights and trying to squeeze it in between, you know, the already busy schedule that I have. And I remember with glee I showed up to my wife and says, 'I want to write a book.' And she says, 'You don't have time to write a book.' And I showed her the entire first draft, and I was proud of myself. And she said, 'You duplicitous, how dare you have done that behind my back.' So maybe that wasn't the best way to get the outline and first draft done, but that was the genesis of The Juggling Act. And you know, the book today has gone through two editions, you know, 100,000 plus copies of the two editions, not considering those in some of the other languages, and really has become fairly venerable in the industry and for those who have a Christian faith perspective in the workplace.
Yeah, it was really, really great to read and hear your story. You started at Intel as a technician with an associate's degree at 18 years old, and you managed to complete, as David Copc mentioned already, both your bachelor's and master's while rising through the ranks at Intel. Do you think this is a realistic trajectory for someone today? Do you think that that could actually happen at Intel in the modern era?
To me, it's something that any entry-level aspiring individual should be considering such a path, right? If you are starting as an entry-level person and you hear the story, you know, about people working in the factory at Coca-Cola rising to become, you know, heads of bottling companies. I know a number of individuals who are in CEO roles today in the tech industry who, you know, were lowly immigrants when they came to the US and now have risen through the ranks. And I always am recommending people, you know, that are technicians or entry-level, get your graduate degree, you know, continue your education. And really, I think the fundamentals of hard work, aspiration, seeking your passions, and having, you know, a real desire to constantly improve your own skills, opportunities will emerge. And I think, you know, my story is still possible today.
Yeah, and I think part of the, you know, strategy to your success, I loved how you broke out the idea of success versus significance. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a lot of that came from your idea of writing a personal mission statement and really living, you know, the mission statement that also includes the mission statement itself, the values that back it up, and then the goals that fulfill it. Almost like, you know, Andy Grove's OKRs but for life. And you know, I'm wondering, I wrote my own while reading the book as you advised us to, and mine was probably about two times, three times as long as yours just to try to capture everything. You know, one thing I found surprising about yours was how brief but also how crisp your mission statement was, and then how specific and numerous the goals were. And I'll note that one of your listed goals in 2008 was to become the CEO of Intel. So maybe there's something to manifesting that goal as you did. You know, why do you think this format, the mission statement, the values, and the goals work so well? But then also, is there a danger of dividing your attention too much if you have too many goals?
Well, it's funny, Kevin, you asked the question that way. I had, you know, one mentee that I was mentoring and he showed up, and we, you know, I said I'd help him on his mission statement. And his mission statement was about 20, 25 pages, and you know, the goals were like 30 more pages. And you know, he was just all over the place. And it's like, okay, we got to get this much crisper, right? And I'm not saying you have to be as crisp as mine, and other people in fact are probably even shorter in that regard, you know. But if it's not something that you can put on the desk in front of you, read regularly, dwell on it, you know, think about it, grade yourself, you know, I joke in the book that every tax season is a good time to grade yourself, you're already depressed. You know, look at, you know, where you are and reflect on it. I think all those things are super important. And I think having aspirational goals is important. You know, when I wrote the CEO of Intel, it was very aspirational, but it drove me to be better. You know, also evergreen goals, you know, exercise goals and, you know, family goals and things that you're doing. But there's also an aspect to, you know, what I would call the epics that you go through. You think about your goals differently when you're in the child-rearing years, then when you're in the teenage years, then when you have adult children. And now at the phase of life I'm in, you know, my mission statement is now on revision 6D, right? You know, my sixth major revision and my fourth minor revision of it. You know, it does deserve to be updated, reflected upon, and have your mentor, significant other, you know, really help and participate in, you know, was this helping to shape you and guide you into the full creation that God meant you to be.
You mentioned you're on 6D now. I'm curious if, you know, which version was it in the book? And yeah, when did you last revisit your mission statement and values and goals?
Yeah, I'm not actually sure. I'd have to go back and look which version it was in the, you know, I think we were on, you know, version four something in the, you know, the one that we finally published in Juggling Act. I think we were in version three something in the original Balancing Act book. And I'm now writing the next phase. You know, I've just retired from Intel, entering, you know, a different season of life with grandchildren now. And what are some of the things I want to accomplish in this next phase of my career and life now that I'm in my 60s? And you know, it is time to reflect. And Linda and I have been spending a lot of time saying, 'What's next?' You know, I had worked continuously for 45 years, not a single day was I not employed by a major employer for 45 consecutive years until December 1st.
Wow, that's a pretty big life change.
And some of that I have to reflect in, okay, what is the mission that I have and what are my goals for the next couple of decades of life that God, I hope, still is giving me here upon this Earth.
And before we go into the next question, I also wanted to bring up something, Pat. When I was reading your book and thinking hard on my own personal mission statement, one thing I've done with my clients when doing sort of brand or data sessions with them and we're talking about brand promise, mission, vision, values, all of that, I do an interactive session where we're broken into cross-functional teams and I ask them to pretend that they're a restaurant or that their company is a restaurant today. What does that restaurant look like? And it gets them to think apart from themselves and maybe demonstrate some more self-awareness in sort of a fun but also effective manner. We go through our sessions and at the end I ask them, 'Now that we've done this and we've charted out our values and goals, tell me what the restaurant of tomorrow looks like.' And they go from, 'Well, I used to be,' or the 'you of tomorrow,' 'I used to be a buffet with all sorts of things, no tableside service, and there was long wait times at the front.' 'Well, the restaurant of tomorrow is dedicated to culinary excellence. We have high customer service. We are...' And then I tell them, 'Let's pivot to corporate format to yourself. What does that look like in the corporate world now?' And I actually found myself when I was doing my own mission statement going through that. If I were a restaurant today, what do I look like and what do I aspire to be in the future?
Yeah, well, that's a fun exercise, and I'm sure there's different variants of, you know, how to, you know, just how to think about yourself differently. And certainly, I think carefully about what my brand is. And as I'm, you know, entering this next phase of my own career, what is the brand and who is it I want to influence? What does that look like? And, you know, the aspects of who I am and, you know, what things get me excited and passionate and what things just piss me off, right? And really, you know, grate against me when, you know, my name is used in conjunction with some of those attributes as well. So it really helps to refine who you are, what you want to be, what you believe you're still left upon this Earth to influence.
Well, Pat, I wanted to ask you a question that is very relevant to my students who are all Gen Z. You know, you talk in the book about the development of the 486, which you were the Chief Architect of, and the 80-hour, 90-hour weeks you were putting in. And kind of, you know, and that of course you talk later in the book about reflecting on how that hurt the balance sometimes. I'm wondering, for Generation Z, which is very concerned with balance in terms of work-life balance, in terms of number of hours that they're putting in towards their personal lives versus their work lives, and I know that there's a lot of folks who are in that kind of 18 to, let's say, 25 demographic who the first thing when they're looking for a job they're thinking about is, you know, 'I don't really want to work more than 40 hours a week. That's not something I'm interested in.' Can they still reach high levels of success without putting in those extra hours in a highly technical career like that that you were in when you were rising up through the ranks of engineering at Intel? Or is that kind of unrealistic? Do we have to have, when we're young, more of that balance be shifted towards work?
Maybe two different perspectives on that. You know, one is, and I talk about this in the book as well, that there are, you know, there are periods, there are phases of projects where, hey, sometimes if you want to distinguish yourself, you just got to work hard. But then even after those hard, intense seasons, then okay, how do you make sure you're refreshed and balanced as well? And you know, if you want a predictable 40-hour-a-week job that you never need to work 41, right, and it's okay if you, you know, slip away at 35 some weeks, don't go in the tech, right? Pick a different career than that because projects, the intensity of this industry, etc., doesn't lend itself to that behavior. Now, at the same time, hey, I just finished a two-week cruise, you know, I had a lot of time to, you know, reflect and talk on vacations and sabbaticals and other things like that. But I also think that you can have an intense career even as a Gen Zer, right, with periods of great focus and other periods where, okay, I need to take a break, I need to step away. As I talked about in the book, if everything is intense and you never back away, you know, then you're just working 80 hours a week, right, for it. Now, I do think some are, you know, more concerned about that earlier in their career, and as you say, some Gen Zers I think, you know, fall into that category. And I think there are different areas of careers and skill sets and so that enable, you know, career progression with that kind of work-life balance. And I think there are other careers that it's pretty hard to do so. And, you know, not that one is good or bad per se, I think they're different in that regard. And even today, you know, as you would go look at the technology industry, if you only want to work 40 hours a week, I don't think you're going to distinguish yourself as a world-class leader in that area. And again, that may be okay for you and what your career objectives are. But, you know, as the Bible says, you know, consider the cost before you go out, right? And I think you really do want to consider the investments that are required to do that. And maybe they're not as extreme as what I did at that phase of my career, but I do think you have to think about that balance carefully if you want to be the maximum that you can possibly be in a different career area or a particular career progression that you pursue.
So building on that a little bit, how do you recover when you find that you may have failed at the juggling act? So you talk in the book about sort of the value bank a bit and how, you know, years of consistent performance can kind of demonstrate, you know, that you are great at what you're doing. So even if you did, you know, step away for family for a period of time, you know, people are still going to value you. However, if you were kind of that 40-hour-a-week guy and then you disappear when things really matter, that you might not get that grace from others as well. Could you talk a little bit about that and maybe any other advice you might have on ways to bounce back in family or business when, you know, the other priorities might have taken over and, you know, one of those plates fell?
Yeah, and I do think you fail in both directions, you know, you're going to, right? You know, I mean, that's one of the wonderful things about being a human, you make mistakes, right? And you learn from those mistakes, and that's part of the journey of life. And clearly, I've made mistakes on both sides. And some of the things in raising our children, I back and I just, you know, some of the mistakes that I made, right, when I didn't prioritize family, pain me to this day, right? You know, and just thinking about them, right? But that also, you know, that pain also, you know, gives me and is part of me and who my personality is. And you don't get mulligans on some of those things. You know, when my second grandchild was born, okay, I made the wrong call that day, right? And that hurt that I wasn't there for the delivery of my, you know, second grandchild and chose instead to be present for an earnings call. I made the wrong call, right? And it hurt my son in that day, right? But again, that reflects on me. And hey, I prioritize my grandchildren now differently as a result of that moment, right? So it also shaped me. Also, some of the work experiences where, hey, it didn't work out, right, the project didn't work out, right, or some of my faith experiences where I was chastised. Again, those were hard, those weren't pleasant moments, but again, it helped shape me and who I am today. And you know, I make better trade-offs as a result. So I'd encourage the listeners to say, you know, the mistakes and the learnings from them really are part of what helps shape who you are. But you must embrace that, right? It's some of those mistakes and learnings you're just going to regurgitate over and over again, they hurt, right? You have to talk about them, you have to put them on the table if you're truly going to grow from them. So my simple advice on those is grow from them, maximize the learnings and benefit that you get from the mistakes on both sides, and life is a journey and you will make mistakes on both sides.
Oh, great point, Pat. And I hope with your son, I just love the anecdotes that you had around breakfast time with your children. And you know, I remember looking back to my high school experience, there was this physics teacher, Mr. Couch, who would always, he was very down to business in the classroom, calling us by our last names, Mr. Hudak, Mr. X, but he would always open himself on Fridays to join him for breakfast at 6:00 AM. And that was when he would, you know, let his hair down and really just connect with us as humans. And it was just so refreshing. For some reason, I feel like breakfast is the right time for that. And he ended up passing away about 10 years ago, and he was single and didn't have kids. He ended up leaving about $1.7 million of his kind of career profit through teaching to the school itself. It was a Catholic school in Danbury, Connecticut, I went to. So I just love the idea of the breakfast anecdotes and I love the idea of learning from those mistakes. Speaking of learning, you know, we know you mention mentorship in the book and what makes a great mentor. And since 2008, you know, we've had the explosion of social media, we've had including for job networking with LinkedIn, right, and creating the maybe illusion of mentorship when not the kind of signature candor that you were talking about is involved. And the political environment is more polarized than ever, and hybrid or remote work and COVID changed the way that many relate to the workplace and to their peers. What advice would you give to a company today trying to create a culture of mentorship, or a team that's trying to create a culture of mentorship, you know, or even to young professionals seeking authentic mentors?
Well, first I want to say, I have breakfast with one of my sons next Friday. The habit continues on.
Yeah, just, and I have breakfast, and you know, so we continue, you know, to do that. And I have dinner next week with one of my, with my son-in-law. So, you know, he prefers the evening meal, so, you know, we're happy to do that. So it continues on. But as we get to the topic of mentors, you know, to me, you know, social media, you know, is more group think than it is mentorship. You know, mentorship is generally done, you know, small, pretty intense, pretty raw, direct conversations. And my mentor, Steve, some of my mentors have passed away now, but I had a mentorship call with Steve this morning. And, you know, here I am at a phase of my career that, you know, many might say, 'Pat, you still need a mentor?' Like, yep, I still do. I need those other voices, and particularly as I'm navigating to this next phase of my own, you know, life and career journey, maybe more than I have for quite a while in this period of time. So I'm still being mentored today, and we speak most Friday mornings at 6:00 AM, and we've been doing that for probably two decades now with Steve and I. So I'm still being sharpened today as a result. And I say in the book, if you want to be everything that God intended you to be, you need mentors, you know, people who are going to challenge you, grow you, and, you know, cause you to look at and think about things differently than, you know, you would on your own. So I don't change much of this aspect of what I talk about in the book.
Yeah, and just to recap for our listeners so that they can glean some good insights from this as well, when Pat talks about mentors, one key point and something that I've said to folks in the past is, and I regret not asking for mentors earlier in my career, I always tell folks, what's the worst that they can say to you if you ask someone to be your mentor? They say no because they're too busy or you haven't necessarily put enough thought and planning into that ask, but they're still flattered by your asking them to be a mentor. And then you also have this concept in the book that a cord of three strands is not easily broken. And the three strands that you mention in the biblical context are the Pauls, so the St. Pauls who are the mentors, the Barnabases who are your peers, and the Timothys who are the mentees. And I like how you break a mentorship culture into having all three of those strands, and that's the healthiest way to go about these relationships. And you know, one thing I thought was important too was we had Chris Voss from Never Split the Difference, the kind of art of negotiation from the stance of an FBI hostage negotiator, and his advice, and you have the same advice, is only ask someone to be a mentor if you'd want to have their job someday or you'd want to be like them someday. And I thought that you didn't say that word for word, but you sort of had the same thinking around you want to find a mentor who you want to emulate and have their values and have their position in life at some point.
Yeah, and, you know, those three strands for me are active today, right? Steve, you know, he's my Paul, and Gregory is my Barnabas, and we pray and fast together most every Thursday. And then I have, you know, a number of others who are my Timothys who are part of my prayer and fasting, and I'm encouraging them regularly. So the habit continues to this day.
That's awesome. You mentioned in the book a number of times Andy Grove's mentorship, which was key to your growth at Intel. We actually covered both of his books in our first season, and we were wondering what you think the most important things that modern business executives can learn from Grove's books are. And in addition, would love to have you share any, you know, Andy Grove mentorship stories with the audience.
Well, you know, Andy, you know, as I talk about in the book, he chose me, I didn't choose him. So I was pretty uniquely blessed to have him as a mentor and him wanting to breathe into my life in unique ways. And, you know, I reflect often on different mentorship topics. I joke, he complimented me four times in 35 years, right? He was tough, he was hard. One time I asked his wife, Eva, and said, 'Man, Andy is so tough on me.' And she looks at me and she says, 'That's because he loves you a lot.' And, you know, mentors aren't necessarily people who are warm and fuzzy and make you feel good because a lot of what they're doing is making you not feel good, right? Challenge you to think differently, to look at your mistakes and your successes through different lens. And, you know, Andy's books are legendary. The people that he's touched are, you know, still throughout the industry and reflect on that. And I guess I just hope that I might have that same kind of influence in the lives of others by some of those that I mentor, some of those that read my books and writing, that they too would say my life was just fundamentally changed because they interacted with Pat, just like those that interacted with Andy.
