HOW DO THEY balance personal and professional lives?

- Scott Matheson Jr. just opted not to run for the U.S. Senate. "My children are young," he says. "Only 5 and 8. Given their age and our personal circumstances, my wife and I decided (the Senate campaign and the job itself) would be too stressful for our family."The family had to come first.

"I still think an individual can strike a balance between public service and successful parenting. I had younger siblings (at home when my father became governor). In some ways public life strengthened our family.

"This isn't a decision that, once made, just goes away. I still struggle with it. I'm still a law professor. I'm still involved in more things in the community than I care to think about.

"Regardless of your career path, balance will always be an issue if you are a parent."

- Holly Webster has a master's degree in pediatric nursing. She traded full-time administration for part-time work seven years ago, when she had a baby. A part-time career is easier to negotiate if you've already established yourself, she says.

"Some people are afraid they are going to be left behind. Because I was 35 when I had my first child, I was established. I'd done a tremendous amount of traveling and publishing. I had enough confidence . . . to put my career on hold.

"You can have some of what you want out of life, but you can't have it all. You have to decide what's most important.

"I didn't want to sit at my daughter's graduation from college and think, `I've missed something.' I didn't want to feel that loss."

- Paul Hansen has an MBA from Brigham Young University and works for Ford Motor Co. in Detroit. He is married with two preschool sons.

"I decided I would do whatever it took to establish myself in the first two or three years, and then I would make some adjustments. I am now in the adjustment phase.

"The first two years are critical. They set the tone. In the last two years I worked 60 to 65 hours a week - 800 hours of overtime. That has slowed down to 50 or 55 hours a week. I feel comfortable with 50 hours.

"My wife stays home, which mitigates my time away, but doesn't excuse the excesses.

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"I always keep weekends sacred. I stay as late as I need to on Friday so I don't have to come in on Saturday or Sunday."

- Daniel Oswald has MBA and law degrees and is married with four young children."You really can balance your life if you make sure your underlying values govern your decisions. I've always had this guiding mode that relationships are most important.

"Where I worked after getting my MBA (in Zurich and London for various consulting companies), you are out there competing against single people, people who have MBAs from big schools, whose only interest is to make a mark in the world in terms of business, not relationships.

"I decided to start my own company, be my own boss. I think that's the only way to achieve balance. You have to build the right culture in order to accommodate your goals."

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