Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has a lot on her plate: She\u2019s founder and CEO of home and lifestyle brand As Ever, is the mother of two, has a media arm Archewell Productions and oversees her charitable work through the Archewell Foundation, which she founded with her husband Prince Harry in 2020.<\/p>\n
But the Duchess doesn\u2019t let all of her work and charitable demands get in the way of spending time with her family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want the life-work balance, if such a thing exists,\u201d she said at Fortune<\/em>\u2019s Most Powerful Women conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. \u201cI\u2019m still going to go and chaperone the first-grade field trip, and then run back and try to finish the meetings.\u201d She also recently told<\/a> the Aspire <\/em>podcast with Emma Grede she loves packing her kids\u2019 lunches. \u201cThat sounds ridiculous, but I love it,\u201d the Duchess said.<\/p>\n Meghan said her team at As Ever is lean at fewer than 10 people. The Duchess said she stays heavily involved in the creative aspect of her brand, which sells home goods like marmalades, teas, and cookie mixes, but that she is also involved in crunching the numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe brand is an extension of my aesthetic,\u201d she told Fortune<\/em>\u2019s Editor in Chief Alyson Shontell. \u201cBut it\u2019s more than that. The operational side is so key. I am constantly looking at ways in which we can adjust our margins [and what] our spend looks like [by] really going through P&L.\u201d<\/p>\n The Duchess launched As Ever this year with Netflix<\/a> as her major investor and partner\u2014and demand has been strong. Some of her products sold out within hours, even when Markle says her team assumed inventory would last weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n Many CEOs of large companies don\u2019t necessarily prioritize work-life balance; many see work as life and life as work.\u00a0<\/p>\n In fact, Amazon<\/a> founder Jeff Bezos and Reid Hoffman have denounced work-life balance<\/a>. Bezos recently said he sees it more as \u201cwork-life harmony.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re happy at home, you\u2019ll be better at work,\u201d he said at Italian Tech Week earlier this month. \u201cIf you\u2019re better at work, you\u2019ll be better at home. These things go together. It\u2019s not a strict tradeoff.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Hoffman, on the other hand, has said that for founders to be successful, they have to be \u201ccommitted to winning.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe only really great founders are [the ones who are] like, \u2018I am going to put literally everything into doing this,\u2019\u201d he told<\/a> Stanford University\u2019s How to Start a Startup class in 2014.<\/p>\n Cerebras cofounder and CEO, Andrew Feldman also recently issued a harsh warning for startup founders: \u201cThis notion that somehow you can achieve greatness, you can build something extraordinary by working 38 hours a week and having work-life balance, that is mind-boggling to me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not true in any part of life,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, some CEOs have a similar outlook on work-life balance to the Duchess. Indra Nooyi, for example, said at the 2019 Fortune<\/em> MPW conference<\/a> that while \u201cwork and family is going to be a challenge,\u201d it\u2019s a critical issue that needs to be addressed in the workforce.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen bias happens in the workforce, it strips away a woman\u2019s confidence,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen it attacks your confidence, it attacks your competence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nWhat other CEOs say about work-life balance<\/h3>\n