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"When it comes to reaching your full potential, hard work and perseverance are only a piece of the puzzle. Discipline, adaptability, the ability to maintain a solid work/life balance \u2014 and of course, a little luck \u2014 are all vital ingredients.\nSee also: The Workspaces of Men Who Are On Their Game\nSo what are the secrets of staying on your game? We talked to three men who epitomize success, both in their personal and professional lives. Read on below to hear their stories and advice on work/life balance, winding down and staying sharp.\nKanyi Maqubela\nKanyi Maqubela is a San-Francisco based investor and entrepreneur. He is currently a venture partner at The Collaborative Fund, a seed fund company with a focus on social good.\n\nImage:  Mashable,  Gustavo FernandezDescribes his personal style as... \"Relaxed, with an emphasis on self-expression.\"\nOn professional accomplishments... \"It's been a treat getting to meet and support some incredible companies, from Inventure, which is providing digital tools for the underbanked around the world, to Hampton Creek Foods, which is taking processed eggs out of food, one recipe at a time. I enjoy introducing some of our investors to new problem spaces in food, financial services, education, healthcare and transportation. I've been particularly proud to sit at the table with inspiring entrepreneurs who believe that impact can scale through technology.\"\nOn his current projects... \"Collaborative Fund is a capital source for entrepreneurs who are pushing culture forward through technology, and I am a venture partner, shuttling between San Francisco and our headquarters in New York City. Craig Shapiro, our founder, has created an energetic, creative and highly diverse group of people that I'm grateful to be among. Our team has native speakers of Spanish, Korean, Hebrew, Xhosa and Portuguese, representing graffiti artists, Legomaniacs, philosophers, machinists and pianists all in one. It takes a lot for us all to love a company. And when we do, we invest!\"\n\nImage:  Mashable,  Gustavo FernandezOn work/life balance... \"It helps to be muy simp\u00E1tico with my colleagues, and to be doing highly relational work. As a team, we make sure to get in a couple of social activities, and we all enjoy deep interests outside the office, which I think is hugely important. At Collaborative Fund, we highly value diversity of thinking, which can only be cultivated outside the office.\nTaking cue from our founder Craig, our team's sartorial game is studied but relaxed. We care about design and art, and so we value self-expression with our choice of professional attire, too. We are entrepreneurs and designers ourselves, and the people who we work with are relaxed, so we should be, too.\"\nOn hobbies outside the workplace... \"I have an keyboard in my apartment, so I often unwind by trying, unsuccessfully, to recall the Chopin and Debussy I learned in high school. I'm recently obsessed with microeconomics books, so I've been nerding out to those lately. And taking long walks on the beach with my wife. Just kidding about the beach.\"\nBryan Burkhart\nBryan Burkhart is founder and CEO of H.Bloom, a subscription floral arrangement delivery service based in NYC.\n\nImage:  Mashable,  Christina AscaniDescribes his personal style as... \"Comfortable. I love that I can wear jeans and sneakers to work, but also a blazer and pocket square.\"\nOn building a business... \"My co-founder, Sonu Panda, and I started H.Bloom in 2010. We had come from a software business, called Callidus Software, which we helped grow from a startup to over $100 million in revenue and an IPO in 2003. We left in 2009 to start a new business. We were looking for something that combined a really big market and a lack in technological innovation with a product or service that people loved. When we discovered that the flower industry was $35 billion per year in the United States alone, completely lacking in technology and a product that is universally loved, we knew we had found our niche.\"\nOn professional accomplishments... \"I knew when we started H.Bloom that we would deliver a product that would make people happy. In addition to that, however, I am so proud of the organization that we have created that puts a real emphasis on talent development. We try to follow the words of John Quincy Adams: 'If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.' We have built our SEED Program to cultivate this sort of environment at H.Bloom.\"\n\nImage:  Mashable,  Christina AscaniOn loving what you do... \"Whenever I'm asked about work/life balance, my response is the same: 'If you love what you do, there is nothing to balance. Your work and your life intertwine.'\"\nNo pain, no gain... \"Outside of work, I love to spend time with my family. In my individual free time, I am passionate about activities that are really hard, but when achieved, provide great satisfaction. I run at least one marathon per year (New York last year) and like to climb mountains. My brother, my dad and I are climbing Mt. Elbert, Colorado's tallest peak, at the end of June, and I got H.Bloom's board of directors to climb Grays Peak, outside of Vail, last August.\"\nNeil Capel\nNeil Capel is founder and CEO of Sailthru, a personalized marketing communications technology company. He has been named one of New York City's most influential technology leaders.\n\nImage:  Mashable,  Christina AscaniDescribes his personal style as... \"Classic casual/smart casual.\"\nOn work/life balance... \"It's the most important thing you can do. The amount of intensity and focus that it takes to start and scale a business is so much; without that balance, you will experience burnout. The pressure builds up as you grow and as the company grows, so [having a personal life] becomes more and more important. Without that balance, you can't focus on ideas; you can't focus on the vision or on engineering new products. The demands on your time are so much that you have to remove yourself from the situation, because then you can come back with more intensity.\"\nFrom ski instructor to CEO... \"I get as much skiing in during the winter as possible. It's my favorite thing on earth. I actually used to be a ski instructor back in the day. And also \u2014 though I'm not very disciplined about it \u2014 I've found that meditation helps a ton. I'll sit by the river on the West Side and meditate; though probably not as frequently as I'd like. I love the vibrancy of the city, but also the extreme remoteness of the countryside. I like the two extremes; I'm not much of a suburbs guy.\"\n\nImage:  Mashable,  Christina AscaniOn founding Sailthru... \"For the first two years of the business, I bootstrapped it. Building the company has really been about hiring people who know more than you, and scaling them up to the next level. And making sure that they have all the gates removed to set them up for success. I think a lot of businesses tend to set people up for failure.\"\nOn fostering a positive work environment... \"It's very much about personal growth. I invest in the personal growth of people, because if they're bored at work, they're not going to be amazing performers \u2014 because they're not going to be interested. It's actually about releasing control and giving people the ability to make the decisions and move onto the next stage of their careers and lives.\"\nOn his favorite part of the job... \"Learning. Always, every day. It keeps everything interesting. And it's also about coaching people \u2014 getting people to the next level and really getting them to challenge themselves; it's the same mentality [with which I approached teaching people to ski]. It's amazing, getting together such an incredible group of people who want to succeed.\"\nHow do you stay on your game? Tell us in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/06/11/stylish-successful-men/>