Airbnb Exec left her job to take a gap in South America with her husband and children 3 – attributed to re -appointment to push her to the CEO of Taskrabbit

Take Anya Smith, CEO of Taskrabbit, for example.

It appears to be in a high profession, working as an executive director in AirbnbWhen I left everything; She was filling her life and moved to Buenos Aires for a year in 2018 with her husband and three young children, to stop temporarily.

Despite the stigma that often surrounds the CV holes, Smith has registered promotion on her return – and she has seen her career since then moving from strength to strength. The 50 -year -old tells the leader luck The matter is largely due to the reset of the year he gave her abroad – and most importantly, her marriage.

After all, how many times do you get a full year to stay away from your routine and redefine your life?

Instead of back, I enjoyed unemployed life with long lunch and cinema at 10 am and a thinking space

Unlike the usual travelers on Saturday, Smith’s year in the capital of Argentina was less on the automatic side. Strip PatagoniaThe family remained in the same apartment, so that children can join the nearby school. This means regular procedures-waking up in terms of schools, schools, family dinner, and bedding. no Swimming with sharks or gorilla flights at the last minuteThe structure every day only, in a different country.

However, Smith and her husband took the long days that they had to enjoy Spanish lessons, horseback, restaurant lunch, and even trips to cinema at 10 am on Tuesday if they felt it.

“It was great, but it was also great,” she says, adding that in the first half of the year abroad, they were gambling a lot of activities and lessons (including dance and photography). “We felt that we do not want to waste – there is a lot to learn and a lot to see.” But then it was realized that, they did not actually give themselves temporarily.

In terms of courtesy little girls public relations

“I think it is really good to have enough time to rethink what is important for you,” she explained.

So in the second half of their year the gap, they did so exactly. “We spent five hours until we had to go to capture our children, and to hold these types of conversations, do we want to return to live in the Gulf region? Do we want to move to another place? How will the move to Park City and ski more than that and work much less? Can we do that?”

“We conducted all kinds of discussions about life, and we had time and space to do so. So by the time we made a decision to return and work in technology again, and in fact, we return to the Gulf region, and I felt well – and I felt very intended.”

“But we have succeeded in making some major changes,” she adds – one of the transformational changes is how to divide homework.

The year gap showed her husband’s mental pregnancy to manage a house – so she can raise her career

Before the gap year, Smith says that the family administration often fell to its shoulders, although it is considered an executive role at that time. “I was often the person who cared about all the dates of doctors for children, or summer camps, or make sure we have all the plans for the weekend.”

But without grinding daily from 9 to 5, the roles they took automatically when they became workers fathers quickly disappeared.

“Since none of us was working, we literally divide the responsibilities to the bottom of the center completely – and then when we returned back, it really held it.”

Smith is attributed to the year of the gap while giving her husband a “deep understanding” of the mental pregnancy that usually occurs Working mothers. Today, he even holds the lion’s share of the children’s routine management – it is manifested in progress to more demanding positions in Uber, IKEA and Taskrabbit now.

“This means that it is good for me to get a tougher role at the present time, while it interferes and helps to manage the house.”

“I am not sure that we were able to do this without an experience that we had in Argentina. It is really difficult to understand what it means to carry the mental load to manage the house unless you should do this yourself.”

In fact, it was not just a gap – it was a reset that allowed them to rethink how to balance the ambition and family life in a sustainable way, instead of slipping into virtual situations. The bottom line, as Smith says, is simple: “We cannot manage C-Suite and turn a house.”