We’re all too familiar with the common theme of Gen Y’ers living with their parents. Many young professionals looking to break that stereotype see themselves as completely independent, self-sustaining individuals. Since I moved away to university, I’ve tried to portray that same image to the outside world. Except over the last year or so, it’s been a lie.

As my job has taken on more of my time and attention, I’ve found myself relying on others much more. I’ll ask my parents to help me with my taxes, pick up supplies when they go to Costco, or I’ll ask them for rides or to borrow their car when I’m in town. I’ll ask my girlfriend to pick up Christmas presents, help me run errands and edit my articles. I ask my roommate in San Francisco to receive packages when I’m out of town, and basically handle all of the administrative side of our apartment. I essentially have a team of loved ones who have inadvertently volunteered to keep my life on track.

For a long time, I felt really guilty about this. Here I am, supposed to be running a successful, high-growth tech company, while I can’t even get the basics of my life together on my own. I thought it was something I needed to hide in order to maintain a professional profile, and some level of respect from my colleagues. Would anyone really take me seriously if they knew I had to rely on so many other people to keep my life from falling apart?

Then, I actually thought about all of the successful people I know, especially those I’ve gotten to know on a personal level. Almost all of them have a community of family and friends who support them, and I think they’d all agree they wouldn’t be where they are without that. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day and a demanding career means that you have to make tradeoffs with your time. One option is to sacrifice relationships – time spent with family and friends. The other option is to invest more in those relationships and then just be incredibly grateful when those loved ones step in and help you run your life. I like the second option better.

So here’s my new year’s resolution: Stop feeling bad about asking for help. Don’t take people for granted, but just accept the fact that if I’m going to take my company where I want to this year, I’m going to need a lot of help in my personal life to get there. I just need to let them know that I appreciate them and I recognize the sacrifices they’re making to help me out with my life.

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Andrew D’Souza is the Chief Operating Officer of Toronto-based Education Startup Top Hat Monocle. Follow him on Twitter at @andrewdsouza.

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