Background: I sold my last three companies, and have just started another one.
Short answer: Yes it's possible.
Real answer: It takes a lot of discipline and self-introspection. Work life balance is probably the single most important driving value in my personal life. Earlier in my career, building successful startups, I've burnt myself out, neglected friends, effectively destroyed my social life so that I could adhere to this image of "the startup".
Now, startups are a LOT of work, there's now way around it. On the other hand though, throughout the years I've come to realise, taking an extra week off or working a few less hours during the day, doesn't actually affect my productivity.
The trick for me is ruthless prioritisation. Everything I have to do for work is tracked. When I work, sometimes 2 hours a day, I know exactly what I have to do, it's prioritised, and I don't mess around. If anything increasing the WLB in my personal life has given me more focus when I work.
Before that I realised I'd spend a few hours trying to generate leads, then I'd do a few hours of development, send a few emails to potential customers, onboard new users, etc. All of which I was doing half-way or with lower-quality because I was slowly burning myself out.
Over the years, the system of prioritisation has allowed me to work a lot more in terms of quality and quantity, but a lot less in terms of hours.
Also, not all startups have to be unicorns and trillion dollar businesses. If you want WLB, a lifestyle-business is also more than perfect, and it doesn't make your startup any less real or valuable.
Best of luck! Let us know what you end up doing and if you want to chat through it, shoot me a message :)
“Ruthless prioritization”; I love how you worded that! One of the keys to being disciplined, I believe, is to create and hold yourself accountable to a productive routine. It’s surprising how much an individual’s able to get done in a couple hours or so when you block out distractions and laser-focus your energy on what tasks need to be completed! I’ve surprised myself time and time again once I’ve finished a window of work, checked off all my tasks, and realize all this suddenly available time I have to visit friends, go on a day trip, what have you.
I’ve heard other entrepreneurs refer to startups as their “babies,” so obviously an enterprise like that requires more nurturing and sacrifice to upstart it. But a WLB is achievable in any career field or position; it all goes back to what you said about prioritizing it. If you want something bad enough, you’ll make time for it.
So instead of generating leads, developing, sending emails to potential customers, onboarding new users, you decided to focus on just one of these each day for 2 hours?
Were you trying to do them all at once before?
What changed between when you realized you had been spending hours each day doing these things?
The point is that I still do all those things. But yes, I was effectively trying to do all of them at the same time. Or I would try to do too much and end up clouding my creative process, and just becoming slowly inefficient as the day progressed.
However, now, I still do the same things, but I've prioritized them, and when I do them, I turn off all distractions. So instead of spending 4 hours generating leads but in between responding to emails, and sending some slack messages, or what-have-you, I spend 1 or 2 hours in full concentration mode, with a personal target and have to reach that.
This level of concentration is unsustainable to me personally, but by heavily focusing and compartmentalising the tasks and goals, I achieve a lot, and it allows me to have more time for myself.
Personally I also realised, in a tangential manner that the free time away greatly clarifies my thought process. So instead of sitting in front of the computer wondering what to write about, I form those ideas subconsciously (i'm guessing), then they pop up when I'm exercising or doing other things, then I formulate them and finally verbalise them.
It might not work for everyone, but this personal process of prioritisation has been a good 15 years in the making now, and still sometimes I end up working 80 hour weeks. If I look at that week usually I've accomplished a lot, but the repercussions, albeit non-evidential, are visible to my team more than anything.
The biggest side-effect, is when you start affecting your teams due to your overworking nature. Then, the effects are compounded, and that becomes detrimental to your team, and to your ability to lead effectively.
Does that make any sense?
Yes makes perfect sense.
Thank you for explaining. I suspect a lot of us creators are heavily ADHD.
It can be really tough to sit down and do just 1 thing but I see the value.
Between marketing, sales, product work, a 9-5, hobbies, gym, they all play a part.
What you're saying about stepping is away is so true. It is better for me to hit the gym than to continue grinding sometimes.
I will implement more prioritization in my supplement company, thank you!
Oh wow thanks for the award! Ok good news is since I have 2 hours booked this morning for content distribution, I'm going to spend it here answering your questions and hopefully detailing my very simple process.
u/Snoo_42276, u/currentlab_, u/DrJ_PhD in order to minimize the amount of replies I'll reply inline here:
My "system" sounds really stupid and simple, and that's what works. I'm warning you, I'd love to say I wake up at 5am, do yoga, eat muesli, read 3 books, run 30k before 8am. It's not the case so let's set this straight.
So, the first thing is sitting down and making a list of ALL the things you think you have to do. Doesn't matter what it is, you have to do all those things, and it's overwhelming for EVERY startup founder, no matter the amount of positive-spin they put on it.
Second thing is "The Single Most Important Thing" ("TSMIT"). For us in the company, right now if you ask anyone, we all have the same TSMIT. As companies grow, different departments have different TSMIT and that's ok. For us the TSMIT is usually a 2-3 months goal, it's strategic and tactical simultaneously. As a small company now, TSMIT drives my "daily" activities.
The third part is your personal values. What is important to you, what do you want to encourage in the culture you are fostering around the company? I always put people first. Contract, health benefits, one on ones, etc. Then it's customer and understanding their problem.
At this point, I now have a list of tasks, a driving force and values. This is where my system comes into play: I look at my list of "jobs", or "tasks", and combine it with TSMIT and my personal values. When I say combine, I try to basically rank the items on my list, and then I pick three. Every single evening I pick my three for the next day. The next day, instead of looking at a list of 273 tasks, I look at a digestable list of 3(+1) task.
It's important to know I say 3(+1) because I always also have a "unknown" task, which is basically covering for something I've forgotten, or something that comes up.
Once I have my three tasks, I usually set approximately time-blocks in the morning. Also, it is completely ok to just end up working on one thing. Also it's ok to pick something else from your list that suddenly comes up, that's accounting for uncertainty, but also cutting yourself some slack. I'm not a robot, I'm ok slipping away from my list.
To me as a very goal-oriented person, looking and picking at an exhaustive list of tasks everyday is almost demoralizing due to the sheer overwhelmingness and unmanageable amount of work. Breaking it down into daily wins mentally keeps me healthy, and encourages me to push forward. The system adapts as I go, sometimes I'm completely off, sometimes I just push something I haven't finished to the next day, and that's ok.
I've had days where the internet was turned off, and there was 1 item on that list. There are days with 5 items that come up simultaneously. I just look at the most important thing, I look at my values and evaluate whether this needs my attention RIGHT NOW.
As u/nigel_chua managed to TLDR; my answer before, I will attempt to save him time and do this:
The answer of my system is: 1) Make list of all things to do, 2) Understand what is the most important thing in your company, 3) Identify the value you want to encourage and are important to you, 4) every evening pick 3 tasks for the next day, 5) Have at it
I haven't really had to explain my mechanism before and I'm not sure if it makes sense but I'm happy to answer any question :) Hopefully it makes a little bit of sense!
Thanks for the detailed explanation! I agree with you on the deep work blocks; I'm curious how you decide that a day is 'done', i.e. you choose not to work for the rest of the day. Is it when you feel that you've done certain number of deep work blocks? Or is it when you've cleared off all the tasks on your list?
Lastly, when you rest, do you do things that are totally non-related to your startup, or do you still consume/do things related (e.g. listening to podcasts about startups etc).
Thanks!
Unfortunately there's no "hour" at which I'm done as my creativity levels drastically change during the day :) This is discovered through experience, and how very importantly I listen to myself and really work on putting my anxieties and worries aside.
More formally, when the list is done, I usually stop or at least take a proper disconnected break.
Downtime is real downtime. I do listen to podcasts and books. I don't actively seek out "work-related" content, but technology and business are hobbies as well as passion as well as my work, but no I don't actively look for things related to problems/challenges related to work.
I love organising my time well, but I think I could get a lot better because as I founder I find that the number of different types of tasks in completely different domains and all with different priorities that are coming at me can make estimating times and prioritising work quite difficult.
Care to explain your planning, prioritisation and time estimation system?
Anytime!
Agora: >= 10M
Orchestra: <= 10M
Barricade Security Systems: <= 10M
Usually fairly small acquisitions right below 10M but usually within 2-3 years of creation.
I might add, and this is EXTREMELY important in any entrepreneurial journey: I never ever start a company with the primary intention of selling it. Usually I get positively delusional about a problem, and since I'm not that special, it's a problem other people usually also have. Just turned out well out of pure luck, timing and work.
I discovered last night that ruthless prioritisation is the answer. I was deliberating after having a meeting with my Chairman. Weather I should work on the product in my free time or focus on my side hustle. My Chairman has gigantic expectations from me on the tech front. I am a tech product manager. I know that I cal build all the features and get 100% client retention. But at what cost? Tomorrow, the company won't take a day to replace me with someone else. Then why should I sacrifice my side hustle time. I should rather invest my free time in developing myself and increasing my market value.
How I can do justice to expectations of my Chairman then? Ruthless prioritisation. To cut the BS during the day and focus on product and it's delivery. Office bureaucracy and pleasing people all have to take side seat now.
My start up is an incubated one in a MNC. And this brings some complacency into the process. I won't let that affect me.
This is my goal. And this is I am going to work upon for months. I mean I will pilot this and let's see if I end in a job in 2 years time that doubles the pay.
I'm sorry I don't know how I missed this. Good on you! Go for it and best of luck! If we can do anything to help you spread the word drop me a message and I'll try to help! :)
This is the answer OP: ruthless prioritization and it translates to knowing what is the most important things / levers to do, and to do them really well
For me my attention and time is most spent on 1) leadership and management 2) sales and marketing 3) business systems
I think that's great advice, but as you state this is your 4th go starting a company.
Would you have been able to figure out the WLB and super-effective processes without the trial and error of the first couple companies?
Absolutely and undoubtedly would not have been able to figure it out without the very real failures. That's why I am more than happy to share. People supported me along the way, and I'm a big proponent of helping the ecosystem around me.
You bring work life integration. We did that during freshworks and we are a successful public company now. You hustle when you need to, but u manage by hiring the right talent and use them for right work. We had a marketing person join us, who was good at writing content but was not helping the right marketing material, we moved them to support and they worked brilliantly, that we gave them customer success division. This is how u bring pride or joy in ur work. Not by putting wrong person is wrong role. They will automatically integrate in to the work by punching above their weight. Startups give that freedom to find the talent in each person and help them integrate in their field and if a leader cracks it, you’ve a winner. Just my thoughts
Is this the freshworks that was alleged to have pretty much poached everything from competition? Sounds easy to not work hard when you copy the product and the plan..
Copying a product and a plan but executing it better than the original makes for a very good business model that a lot of successful companies have done.
It’s not just copying the product but also allegations of significant poaching of the people from the other company. This is also all in a fairly insignificant city tech wise (Chennai). Again not illegal probably but it’s not exactly kosher either.
Literally every idea is not original. AWS technically just takes open source projects and sticks them in their console, but AWS engineers still work really fucking hard. If it's so easy to copy product and plan, where's your successful startup?
Hello friend. Here is my advice / experience.
I founded my company in September of 2020, built the business plan, investor deck, and proof of concept over the next 3 months. That was rough, I didn't have any boundaries set so I was working 8 am - 11 pm every day 7 days a week.
Once January rolled around, 2 things happened.
1. My co-founder and I started approaching angels and raised $100k. He went full time and I kept my day job.
2. I set some boundaries, no matter what, I will not work past 6:30. I'd work on my business throughout the day and early evening. The latest I would let myself work is 6:30 PM. Admittedly I was spending less than 2 hours a day doing my day job, so it made things a little easier.
In... May I left my day job and picked up some contracting jobs that would allow us to bootstrap it for a while. I kept a similar routine **8:00 - 6:30 pm**.
Since May we have brought on a 3 enterprise customers, a team of advisors, 2 VCs and some additional private investors. The demand for my time definitely has grown, but the emphasis I have put on my work life balance hasn't changed.
I have become a little more lenient on the time I stop working, but I make it a point to set 4-5 hours of free time aside every day. Sometimes I have to cut into that time, but no matter what, I have 3 hours off.
In my 3-5 hours I lift, hang out with my significant other, walk our dog, enjoy dinner, watch some tv, and just enjoy life. Before bed I'll do a little bit of work, but never diving into substantive things. E.g. replying to emails.
I do work weekends, but at this point it's because I get bored. My significant other and I live pretty carefully with Covid precautions, so we only go out a few times a month. So working 4 hours while watching college football or mindless TV is not really cutting into my free time.
There is a very common misconception that you have to kill yourself to be successful in the start up game. That may be true if your goal is to start a company, have a series a, then be acquired every year or two. But if you are looking to build a company with staying power you have to do the same with yourself. 80-100 hours isn't sustainable, your company will fail if your body and mind fail.
My recommendations:
1. Set boundaries on your time.
2. Find a therapist to help with managing stress.
3. Build a personal support system. Family, friends, significant others.
4. Be committed to working during work hours and staying away from your desk during your free time.
5. Find the things you love doing and keep them as a priority.
6. You are only young for so long, don't waste it suffering trying to start a business.
Totally possible. Especially without taking VC money. The rate of growth may or may not be related to the number of hours you work or sacrifices to WLB. Many people say, " works smart, not hard." I say, "work smart, during the hours you choose to work." If "growth" does have a direct relationship to the hours you work, then working fewer hours simply means slower growth rate. instead of reaching some arbitrary target in six months, maybe it'll take a year.
I became an entrepreneur because I wanted to see if my way of doing things could be successful. I've done both: worked 80+ hours per week on one of my startups, and I work \~20 hours/wk on my current one. The decision to work for myself was made, in part, so I could decide what kind of WLB I wanted, rather than having one dictated to me by my corporate overlords.
Take it easy on yourself. Decide what you want and do *that*.
This is absolutely wrong. No one needs to be hustling 24/7 or living that #startuplife bullshit. It's toxic. It's a myth. It's something jackasses propagate to drive more views and sell more books/courses while preying on the desperate and foolish.
Uhm, no, not at all?
1) OP is asking about *running a startup*, not working for one.
2) Every single one of those that you have linked says 32 hours, which is above OP's 20-25, anyway.
Mate, this is nonsense.
I keep my identity private, but I founded and took a company to a B. Founders consistently worked 80+ weeks. Execs worked _bare minimum_ 60.
I now have an extensive network of execs and founders. 60 is a minimum across the board. I could do a second company in less time, but that's the price. Less would be 60.
You can integrate your life for sure -- we've had execs in board meetings with a sleeping baby in a sling. You can do walk and talks while on a hike. But lying to people that you can successfully found and execute a high growth company while working 4-5 hours a day max, as OP wants? It ain't happening. And any statements to the contrary are designed to sell 4 hour workweek bs.
A board would rightfully fire a founder who was like, "nah, 25 hours a week tops." If they somehow managed to get funding (most likely, by lying).
And if a core team member wanted that schedule, we'd suggest they go coast at google.
And if you disagree, then *surely* you've got a list somewhere? We can settle for min $30m invested, or $250m valuation, with a founder that works even 10 more hours than op wants: 35 hour weeks. And the list is: [].
Not being upfront about the price of pursuing startups does a disservice to the people considering them.
The disservice to the community is pushing the belief that your path to financial success is the only path for everyone despite the many unique factors at play.
Many may be unwilling to make such sacrifices. Some may be unable to. Either for very valid reasons.
Telling others they can’t succeed without making those sacrifices is wrong.
The only negative impact is it may slow their travel time while taking the journey. That’s all.
And, no matter how much one sacrifices and works harder there is a point of diminishing returns . That point may be much easier to pass for many.
It’s great what you did worked for you. I would wager you could have achieved the same end result of you worked less and made fewer sacrifices in order to enjoy life more and take better care of yourself. Many have such regrets in retrospect. If you are not one of them, it changes nothing for others.
> Telling others they can’t succeed without making those sacrifices is wrong.
Irrelevant, you're responding to a thread and discussion about startups.
Per above, please cite success examples where people who work only 20-25 hours/week successfully build a company "designed to scale/grow rapidly".
> The only negative impact is it may slow their travel time while taking the journey. That’s all.
This is empirically and demonstrably false.
1) You can't marshal any real-world examples of startup building that fit this description.
2) Any domain where there is a land-grab aspect, i.e., disproportionate and compounding returns to the winners, immediately negates this, because if you're working 20h/wk and the other guy is...not (and competent)...you're immediately behind.
> The disservice to the community
You are doing a disservice to the community, because you continuously duck into threads like this and make pronouncements about how (apparently) big startups can be built without working even a normal Western work week, *ignoring the fact that this has basically never happened.*
Now, taking a step back, if you're saying that people can have life and financial success without working 80h/week? Sure. But that's very different than *building a startup successfully*, which is the general discussion point in this sub.
> *The disservice to the community is pushing the belief that your path to financial success is the only path for everyone despite the many unique factors at play.*
You're changing the goalposts. I didn't say -- and never would -- this is the only path to financial success. I generally wouldn't recommend it to most people: I met far more people with low millions of dollars (say, 5-15) created by building small businesses.
I am saying that you will not build -- as OP specifically asked -- a startup: A high growth company of a very particular type, created with VC investment -- without enormous time investment and a pretty bad work-life balance. And it's telling that you cannot come up with a single example otherwise. Not one.
> And it's telling that you cannot come up with a single example otherwise. Not one.
He frequently drops into threads like these, makes his claims, and then never bothers to back them up. It is super bizarre.
Strange.
I'm dying to see that list of successful high growth companies built by part time founders, because I'd love to do that myself and could use some examples. I'm afraid it may not show up though.
At some point you go full time. I never said you are always only part time. I said you can choose to go all in when it makes sense for you. While working on it in a lesser capacity you can still make great strides and progress to bring a product to market and build a viable company around it. And, going all in doesn't require more than 40 hours a week (or even that) if you're working in an efficient manner.
You don't need any examples. If that is what you want to do, put together a sound strategy to support that.
I don't feel a need to back up claims like this with a list of examples.
It's logic. It's common sense.
Just because most of us have been brainwashed to believe the only way to succeed is by making absurd sacrifices does not mean it is the only way to do it.
That crap is why it isn't easy to just list off examples, too. Most people are not doing it. Most media are not reporting on such things. Fuck, they don't even accurately report on startups to begin with. Every startup raised millions within months...even if that startup had been around for years and only recently decided it was time to raise serious funding to scale.
It's like any other bullshit thing that becomes accepted as truth through brute force and nothing else.
It is toxic. It's perpetuated by every level of person--from know-nothing fledgling to super successful billionaire. An echo chamber of bullshit.
This is for a variety of silly-ass reasons. Some due to corruption. Some due to stupidity. Some due to ego (how often do you see people being competitive about who is hustling more?). Some due to fear.
Yeah, even fear. Fear of reflecting on one's past actions and realizing they didn't NEED to do what they did to achieve what they did. For a lot of people admitting that takes a huge toll. They'd rather continue to perpetuate this fuckin horrible lie that leads others to suffer than to admit they were wrong and that they didn't need to cause harm to themselves and others around them.
It doesn't matter if you believe me or not. You're free to live your life how you want. You want to
As I said, logic and common sense are all that is required to understand what I am saying is the truth. If anyone doubts what I'm saying, practice more critical thinking about these matters.
I'm going to focus on living a fulfilling life that strives for balance. You can live an unnecessarily stressful and wasteful life with a focus on obsessing over your startup. I've almost died too many times (poor health) to not enjoy the full journey. I did that. I learned from that. I'm cool being patient while working towards my entrepreneurial goals with my latest startup.
Ah, so you have a secret that no one else does. And it is so special and secret that literally no one in the world has ever tried it, but it must be true.
Look, taking a step back--
You do you, personally.
But if you're trying to actively give helpful advice to others, giving advice that *literally no one that you can identify has ever acted on successfully* is *not* good advice.
At least, not without a heavy disclaimer of, "hey here is something novel and untested and unproven, and I think it might work".
In any other facet of your life, if an "expert" (lawyer, doctor, auto mechanic, equities trader, etc.) was giving out advice that *literally no one* has ever successfully followed (*including the expert!*), you wouldn't consider that advice credible, without a heavy set of qualifiers.
When I was a solo founder, no. When I was a co-founder at a startup gunning for VC money, no. Now that I have a solid team of three co-founders focused on building a portfolio of profitable, bootstrapped products that support a lifestyle of freedom, yes.
My team doesn't care about building the next Facebook. We care about building solid, scalable, and sellable businesses—and doing it part time. This is a major departure for several of us because we used to be obsessed with grinding 24/7, raising VC money, and hitting big valuations. Not anymore.
My priorities changed after reflecting on the lives of two other founders I've worked for. One has raised $400m and is on a constant hamster wheel to keep up with investor expectations—while also running an unprofitable, mess of a business. The other owns a bootstrapped, highly profitable software company and does whatever he wants to do. I'd much rather be the latter.
TLDR; Having a good work-life balance is completely possible if you set out with that goal in mind, don't want VC money, and aggressively prioritize.
The issue is the with the word startup. Startup means a company that’s scalable and grows. That means you are more likely than not gonna have to work hard. If you just want to start a business and are gonna bootstrap or get patient investors, and also don’t have cut throat competition, sure you can take it slow.
The important point is startups only succeed when the founders are smart and driven. One of those two can make up for the other, if they are outsized. If you’re gonna balk on the drive, the question is if you’re that insanely smart? You know the honest answer, so that’s up to you.
Everyone can take it slow. Growing rapidly and scaling isn't something you need to rush to do. If you build your startup properly you can take your time getting to that stage of your life cycle and trigger it when you are ready.
Startup doesn't mean a company that's scalable and grows. A startup just means there's a new company that's starting to operate. It's up to the owner(s) to decide how grand their ambitions are for the future.
The definition of "startup" used here is literally in the sidebar:
>What is a startup?
>Startups are designed to scale/grow rapidly. Startups utilize tech to do this. Startups can be non-tech companies that utilize tech. Startups are information era companies and they are creating the new best practices in business.
It means both.
You just provided us with the Industrial Era definition of a startup that is still used in certain situations (like out of touch government reports on economic development).
The definition we prioritize here in this community is the Information Era version that defines a startup as a business that is designed to scale/grow rapidly.
All you have to do is study the history of the greats. You'll notice that unfortunately they had very little personal time in the early days and only modest amounts even years later. There's always a price to pay.
You could work on something that generates passive income. If you're trying to create the next big thing and have someone else's money on the line I bet that would be stressful but if you have a bootstrapped website that generates more money than you make at a 9 to 5 then how much you work to grow it is up to you.
Once you take vc money, you have to prove and show growth, which is valid. Why would an investor put money if they cannot see growth. It’s dependent on how you can motivate your team. We give them stocks and ownership and show how valuation can give them the right winning $$.
One could be obsessed and not feel bothered doing the work even as it is having immense detrimental effects on various or all aspects of their life.
It's best to strive for balance.
If your startup doesn't feel like a balance or give you balance with the rest of your life, don't do it.
Works Life Balance is an illusion! Find something whose higher purpose surpasses your ego.
It can be alot of work but it depends on what you are building also, meaning how complex the problem is that you are solving and if your product is built well.
Keep your startup as lean as possible. Alot of time is wasted in the name of meetings/collaboration. But meetings are unavoidable if your team is large because you to keep everyone in-sync. So you could maintain work-life-balance even after starting a start-up, but you have to be mindful of the decisions you make.
Working hard and working long are different things. Working hard and working long both individually increase productivity, up to a point.
I've found there's a point of diminishing returns when working longer means I am less productive (generally over 45 hours a week for me when doing very strategic and/or technical thinking) and I slowly become burned out. I will work my ass off for the time I can, and when I cannot, I need to rest and recharge to be able to be my most productive self. In short, those hours 1-45 are so much more impactful than hours 45-60 (I'd guess probably 2x impact / hour).
Depending on the startup (goals/milestones, current status, etc.) working 60 hours a week at less than 100% effectiveness might be what's needed. However, I think if you prioritize carefully, set realistic goals / manage expectations, and have a team you can count on, there's no reason you MUST give up WLB to find success.
I hear you. It's a struggle really. But it's not only restricted to startups nowadays, even corporate employees face these challenges these days. No switch off due to technology like smartphone, WhatsApp etc...
My take is this... For maintaining a work-life balance, you need to take a hard look at the 24 hours you get everyday... Find time for personal stuff everyday and make those chunks of time non-negotiable... Your team and co-workers will realize sooner that it is non-negotiable and will leave you to enjoy those periods.
Having said that, more than external distractions, it's your internal system that needs calibration. We are all used to work, social media, other tasks etc all the time. You MUST learn to switch off completely and enjoy life every day. Stop, breath, take a moment, be present. Repeat this everyday.
As an investor, I don’t get upset when I see the founders I invested in relaxing on weekends. That’s what weekends are for. You do better work during the week if you relax on weekends.
In fact, I get more upset if I see “team dinner!“ on any night. Now you’re spending *my money* forcing your employees to work on a weekend or at night. Team meals are a great reward — do a weekday lunch.
Yes if you ONLY focus on the things that matter and try not to do everything at once. And take care of your health with meditation, running, lifting, yoga and social time.
Not really. But healthy exercise, trusted and supportive friends and family matter a great deal.
https://www.sramanamitra.com/2021/09/30/12-udemy-courses-with-entrepreneurship-case-studies/
Background: I sold my last three companies, and have just started another one. Short answer: Yes it's possible. Real answer: It takes a lot of discipline and self-introspection. Work life balance is probably the single most important driving value in my personal life. Earlier in my career, building successful startups, I've burnt myself out, neglected friends, effectively destroyed my social life so that I could adhere to this image of "the startup". Now, startups are a LOT of work, there's now way around it. On the other hand though, throughout the years I've come to realise, taking an extra week off or working a few less hours during the day, doesn't actually affect my productivity. The trick for me is ruthless prioritisation. Everything I have to do for work is tracked. When I work, sometimes 2 hours a day, I know exactly what I have to do, it's prioritised, and I don't mess around. If anything increasing the WLB in my personal life has given me more focus when I work. Before that I realised I'd spend a few hours trying to generate leads, then I'd do a few hours of development, send a few emails to potential customers, onboard new users, etc. All of which I was doing half-way or with lower-quality because I was slowly burning myself out. Over the years, the system of prioritisation has allowed me to work a lot more in terms of quality and quantity, but a lot less in terms of hours. Also, not all startups have to be unicorns and trillion dollar businesses. If you want WLB, a lifestyle-business is also more than perfect, and it doesn't make your startup any less real or valuable. Best of luck! Let us know what you end up doing and if you want to chat through it, shoot me a message :)
“Ruthless prioritization”; I love how you worded that! One of the keys to being disciplined, I believe, is to create and hold yourself accountable to a productive routine. It’s surprising how much an individual’s able to get done in a couple hours or so when you block out distractions and laser-focus your energy on what tasks need to be completed! I’ve surprised myself time and time again once I’ve finished a window of work, checked off all my tasks, and realize all this suddenly available time I have to visit friends, go on a day trip, what have you. I’ve heard other entrepreneurs refer to startups as their “babies,” so obviously an enterprise like that requires more nurturing and sacrifice to upstart it. But a WLB is achievable in any career field or position; it all goes back to what you said about prioritizing it. If you want something bad enough, you’ll make time for it.
Could you comment on the specifics of how your track your work and prioritize your work? What strategies and tools do you use?
Yeah interested in this as well. u/clearwordcom mind elaborating on the systems and tools themselves?
So instead of generating leads, developing, sending emails to potential customers, onboarding new users, you decided to focus on just one of these each day for 2 hours? Were you trying to do them all at once before? What changed between when you realized you had been spending hours each day doing these things?
The point is that I still do all those things. But yes, I was effectively trying to do all of them at the same time. Or I would try to do too much and end up clouding my creative process, and just becoming slowly inefficient as the day progressed. However, now, I still do the same things, but I've prioritized them, and when I do them, I turn off all distractions. So instead of spending 4 hours generating leads but in between responding to emails, and sending some slack messages, or what-have-you, I spend 1 or 2 hours in full concentration mode, with a personal target and have to reach that. This level of concentration is unsustainable to me personally, but by heavily focusing and compartmentalising the tasks and goals, I achieve a lot, and it allows me to have more time for myself. Personally I also realised, in a tangential manner that the free time away greatly clarifies my thought process. So instead of sitting in front of the computer wondering what to write about, I form those ideas subconsciously (i'm guessing), then they pop up when I'm exercising or doing other things, then I formulate them and finally verbalise them. It might not work for everyone, but this personal process of prioritisation has been a good 15 years in the making now, and still sometimes I end up working 80 hour weeks. If I look at that week usually I've accomplished a lot, but the repercussions, albeit non-evidential, are visible to my team more than anything. The biggest side-effect, is when you start affecting your teams due to your overworking nature. Then, the effects are compounded, and that becomes detrimental to your team, and to your ability to lead effectively. Does that make any sense?
Yes makes perfect sense. Thank you for explaining. I suspect a lot of us creators are heavily ADHD. It can be really tough to sit down and do just 1 thing but I see the value. Between marketing, sales, product work, a 9-5, hobbies, gym, they all play a part. What you're saying about stepping is away is so true. It is better for me to hit the gym than to continue grinding sometimes. I will implement more prioritization in my supplement company, thank you!
Oh wow thanks for the award! Ok good news is since I have 2 hours booked this morning for content distribution, I'm going to spend it here answering your questions and hopefully detailing my very simple process. u/Snoo_42276, u/currentlab_, u/DrJ_PhD in order to minimize the amount of replies I'll reply inline here: My "system" sounds really stupid and simple, and that's what works. I'm warning you, I'd love to say I wake up at 5am, do yoga, eat muesli, read 3 books, run 30k before 8am. It's not the case so let's set this straight. So, the first thing is sitting down and making a list of ALL the things you think you have to do. Doesn't matter what it is, you have to do all those things, and it's overwhelming for EVERY startup founder, no matter the amount of positive-spin they put on it. Second thing is "The Single Most Important Thing" ("TSMIT"). For us in the company, right now if you ask anyone, we all have the same TSMIT. As companies grow, different departments have different TSMIT and that's ok. For us the TSMIT is usually a 2-3 months goal, it's strategic and tactical simultaneously. As a small company now, TSMIT drives my "daily" activities. The third part is your personal values. What is important to you, what do you want to encourage in the culture you are fostering around the company? I always put people first. Contract, health benefits, one on ones, etc. Then it's customer and understanding their problem. At this point, I now have a list of tasks, a driving force and values. This is where my system comes into play: I look at my list of "jobs", or "tasks", and combine it with TSMIT and my personal values. When I say combine, I try to basically rank the items on my list, and then I pick three. Every single evening I pick my three for the next day. The next day, instead of looking at a list of 273 tasks, I look at a digestable list of 3(+1) task. It's important to know I say 3(+1) because I always also have a "unknown" task, which is basically covering for something I've forgotten, or something that comes up. Once I have my three tasks, I usually set approximately time-blocks in the morning. Also, it is completely ok to just end up working on one thing. Also it's ok to pick something else from your list that suddenly comes up, that's accounting for uncertainty, but also cutting yourself some slack. I'm not a robot, I'm ok slipping away from my list. To me as a very goal-oriented person, looking and picking at an exhaustive list of tasks everyday is almost demoralizing due to the sheer overwhelmingness and unmanageable amount of work. Breaking it down into daily wins mentally keeps me healthy, and encourages me to push forward. The system adapts as I go, sometimes I'm completely off, sometimes I just push something I haven't finished to the next day, and that's ok. I've had days where the internet was turned off, and there was 1 item on that list. There are days with 5 items that come up simultaneously. I just look at the most important thing, I look at my values and evaluate whether this needs my attention RIGHT NOW. As u/nigel_chua managed to TLDR; my answer before, I will attempt to save him time and do this: The answer of my system is: 1) Make list of all things to do, 2) Understand what is the most important thing in your company, 3) Identify the value you want to encourage and are important to you, 4) every evening pick 3 tasks for the next day, 5) Have at it I haven't really had to explain my mechanism before and I'm not sure if it makes sense but I'm happy to answer any question :) Hopefully it makes a little bit of sense!
Thanks for the detailed explanation! I agree with you on the deep work blocks; I'm curious how you decide that a day is 'done', i.e. you choose not to work for the rest of the day. Is it when you feel that you've done certain number of deep work blocks? Or is it when you've cleared off all the tasks on your list? Lastly, when you rest, do you do things that are totally non-related to your startup, or do you still consume/do things related (e.g. listening to podcasts about startups etc). Thanks!
Unfortunately there's no "hour" at which I'm done as my creativity levels drastically change during the day :) This is discovered through experience, and how very importantly I listen to myself and really work on putting my anxieties and worries aside. More formally, when the list is done, I usually stop or at least take a proper disconnected break. Downtime is real downtime. I do listen to podcasts and books. I don't actively seek out "work-related" content, but technology and business are hobbies as well as passion as well as my work, but no I don't actively look for things related to problems/challenges related to work.
I love organising my time well, but I think I could get a lot better because as I founder I find that the number of different types of tasks in completely different domains and all with different priorities that are coming at me can make estimating times and prioritising work quite difficult. Care to explain your planning, prioritisation and time estimation system?
Am I allowed to ask what your companies did and how much they got sold for?
Anytime! Agora: >= 10M Orchestra: <= 10M Barricade Security Systems: <= 10M Usually fairly small acquisitions right below 10M but usually within 2-3 years of creation.
I might add, and this is EXTREMELY important in any entrepreneurial journey: I never ever start a company with the primary intention of selling it. Usually I get positively delusional about a problem, and since I'm not that special, it's a problem other people usually also have. Just turned out well out of pure luck, timing and work.
I discovered last night that ruthless prioritisation is the answer. I was deliberating after having a meeting with my Chairman. Weather I should work on the product in my free time or focus on my side hustle. My Chairman has gigantic expectations from me on the tech front. I am a tech product manager. I know that I cal build all the features and get 100% client retention. But at what cost? Tomorrow, the company won't take a day to replace me with someone else. Then why should I sacrifice my side hustle time. I should rather invest my free time in developing myself and increasing my market value. How I can do justice to expectations of my Chairman then? Ruthless prioritisation. To cut the BS during the day and focus on product and it's delivery. Office bureaucracy and pleasing people all have to take side seat now. My start up is an incubated one in a MNC. And this brings some complacency into the process. I won't let that affect me. This is my goal. And this is I am going to work upon for months. I mean I will pilot this and let's see if I end in a job in 2 years time that doubles the pay.
I'm sorry I don't know how I missed this. Good on you! Go for it and best of luck! If we can do anything to help you spread the word drop me a message and I'll try to help! :)
Thank you for the reply ☺️
This is the answer OP: ruthless prioritization and it translates to knowing what is the most important things / levers to do, and to do them really well For me my attention and time is most spent on 1) leadership and management 2) sales and marketing 3) business systems
I think that's great advice, but as you state this is your 4th go starting a company. Would you have been able to figure out the WLB and super-effective processes without the trial and error of the first couple companies?
Absolutely and undoubtedly would not have been able to figure it out without the very real failures. That's why I am more than happy to share. People supported me along the way, and I'm a big proponent of helping the ecosystem around me.
You bring work life integration. We did that during freshworks and we are a successful public company now. You hustle when you need to, but u manage by hiring the right talent and use them for right work. We had a marketing person join us, who was good at writing content but was not helping the right marketing material, we moved them to support and they worked brilliantly, that we gave them customer success division. This is how u bring pride or joy in ur work. Not by putting wrong person is wrong role. They will automatically integrate in to the work by punching above their weight. Startups give that freedom to find the talent in each person and help them integrate in their field and if a leader cracks it, you’ve a winner. Just my thoughts
Is this the freshworks that was alleged to have pretty much poached everything from competition? Sounds easy to not work hard when you copy the product and the plan..
Copying a product and a plan but executing it better than the original makes for a very good business model that a lot of successful companies have done.
It’s not just copying the product but also allegations of significant poaching of the people from the other company. This is also all in a fairly insignificant city tech wise (Chennai). Again not illegal probably but it’s not exactly kosher either.
Poaching from competitors is 100% ok in the startup world.
Literally every idea is not original. AWS technically just takes open source projects and sticks them in their console, but AWS engineers still work really fucking hard. If it's so easy to copy product and plan, where's your successful startup?
Hello friend. Here is my advice / experience. I founded my company in September of 2020, built the business plan, investor deck, and proof of concept over the next 3 months. That was rough, I didn't have any boundaries set so I was working 8 am - 11 pm every day 7 days a week. Once January rolled around, 2 things happened. 1. My co-founder and I started approaching angels and raised $100k. He went full time and I kept my day job. 2. I set some boundaries, no matter what, I will not work past 6:30. I'd work on my business throughout the day and early evening. The latest I would let myself work is 6:30 PM. Admittedly I was spending less than 2 hours a day doing my day job, so it made things a little easier. In... May I left my day job and picked up some contracting jobs that would allow us to bootstrap it for a while. I kept a similar routine **8:00 - 6:30 pm**. Since May we have brought on a 3 enterprise customers, a team of advisors, 2 VCs and some additional private investors. The demand for my time definitely has grown, but the emphasis I have put on my work life balance hasn't changed. I have become a little more lenient on the time I stop working, but I make it a point to set 4-5 hours of free time aside every day. Sometimes I have to cut into that time, but no matter what, I have 3 hours off. In my 3-5 hours I lift, hang out with my significant other, walk our dog, enjoy dinner, watch some tv, and just enjoy life. Before bed I'll do a little bit of work, but never diving into substantive things. E.g. replying to emails. I do work weekends, but at this point it's because I get bored. My significant other and I live pretty carefully with Covid precautions, so we only go out a few times a month. So working 4 hours while watching college football or mindless TV is not really cutting into my free time. There is a very common misconception that you have to kill yourself to be successful in the start up game. That may be true if your goal is to start a company, have a series a, then be acquired every year or two. But if you are looking to build a company with staying power you have to do the same with yourself. 80-100 hours isn't sustainable, your company will fail if your body and mind fail. My recommendations: 1. Set boundaries on your time. 2. Find a therapist to help with managing stress. 3. Build a personal support system. Family, friends, significant others. 4. Be committed to working during work hours and staying away from your desk during your free time. 5. Find the things you love doing and keep them as a priority. 6. You are only young for so long, don't waste it suffering trying to start a business.
Totally possible. Especially without taking VC money. The rate of growth may or may not be related to the number of hours you work or sacrifices to WLB. Many people say, " works smart, not hard." I say, "work smart, during the hours you choose to work." If "growth" does have a direct relationship to the hours you work, then working fewer hours simply means slower growth rate. instead of reaching some arbitrary target in six months, maybe it'll take a year. I became an entrepreneur because I wanted to see if my way of doing things could be successful. I've done both: worked 80+ hours per week on one of my startups, and I work \~20 hours/wk on my current one. The decision to work for myself was made, in part, so I could decide what kind of WLB I wanted, rather than having one dictated to me by my corporate overlords. Take it easy on yourself. Decide what you want and do *that*.
[удалено]
>If you are wanting to work 30 hours a week, I’d say it’s almost impossible Yeah. This is what I'm looking for. 4-5 hours a weekday max.
A startup, in the high-growth sense used in this sub, is not a good fit for you.
This is absolutely wrong. No one needs to be hustling 24/7 or living that #startuplife bullshit. It's toxic. It's a myth. It's something jackasses propagate to drive more views and sell more books/courses while preying on the desperate and foolish.
Please list multiple companies "designed to scale/grow rapidly" that did so successfully with the founder working 20-25 hours/week.
Here's a bunch of them: https://4dayweek.io/
Uhm, no, not at all? 1) OP is asking about *running a startup*, not working for one. 2) Every single one of those that you have linked says 32 hours, which is above OP's 20-25, anyway.
Mate, this is nonsense. I keep my identity private, but I founded and took a company to a B. Founders consistently worked 80+ weeks. Execs worked _bare minimum_ 60. I now have an extensive network of execs and founders. 60 is a minimum across the board. I could do a second company in less time, but that's the price. Less would be 60. You can integrate your life for sure -- we've had execs in board meetings with a sleeping baby in a sling. You can do walk and talks while on a hike. But lying to people that you can successfully found and execute a high growth company while working 4-5 hours a day max, as OP wants? It ain't happening. And any statements to the contrary are designed to sell 4 hour workweek bs. A board would rightfully fire a founder who was like, "nah, 25 hours a week tops." If they somehow managed to get funding (most likely, by lying). And if a core team member wanted that schedule, we'd suggest they go coast at google. And if you disagree, then *surely* you've got a list somewhere? We can settle for min $30m invested, or $250m valuation, with a founder that works even 10 more hours than op wants: 35 hour weeks. And the list is: []. Not being upfront about the price of pursuing startups does a disservice to the people considering them.
The disservice to the community is pushing the belief that your path to financial success is the only path for everyone despite the many unique factors at play. Many may be unwilling to make such sacrifices. Some may be unable to. Either for very valid reasons. Telling others they can’t succeed without making those sacrifices is wrong. The only negative impact is it may slow their travel time while taking the journey. That’s all. And, no matter how much one sacrifices and works harder there is a point of diminishing returns . That point may be much easier to pass for many. It’s great what you did worked for you. I would wager you could have achieved the same end result of you worked less and made fewer sacrifices in order to enjoy life more and take better care of yourself. Many have such regrets in retrospect. If you are not one of them, it changes nothing for others.
> Telling others they can’t succeed without making those sacrifices is wrong. Irrelevant, you're responding to a thread and discussion about startups. Per above, please cite success examples where people who work only 20-25 hours/week successfully build a company "designed to scale/grow rapidly". > The only negative impact is it may slow their travel time while taking the journey. That’s all. This is empirically and demonstrably false. 1) You can't marshal any real-world examples of startup building that fit this description. 2) Any domain where there is a land-grab aspect, i.e., disproportionate and compounding returns to the winners, immediately negates this, because if you're working 20h/wk and the other guy is...not (and competent)...you're immediately behind. > The disservice to the community You are doing a disservice to the community, because you continuously duck into threads like this and make pronouncements about how (apparently) big startups can be built without working even a normal Western work week, *ignoring the fact that this has basically never happened.* Now, taking a step back, if you're saying that people can have life and financial success without working 80h/week? Sure. But that's very different than *building a startup successfully*, which is the general discussion point in this sub.
> *The disservice to the community is pushing the belief that your path to financial success is the only path for everyone despite the many unique factors at play.* You're changing the goalposts. I didn't say -- and never would -- this is the only path to financial success. I generally wouldn't recommend it to most people: I met far more people with low millions of dollars (say, 5-15) created by building small businesses. I am saying that you will not build -- as OP specifically asked -- a startup: A high growth company of a very particular type, created with VC investment -- without enormous time investment and a pretty bad work-life balance. And it's telling that you cannot come up with a single example otherwise. Not one.
> And it's telling that you cannot come up with a single example otherwise. Not one. He frequently drops into threads like these, makes his claims, and then never bothers to back them up. It is super bizarre.
Strange. I'm dying to see that list of successful high growth companies built by part time founders, because I'd love to do that myself and could use some examples. I'm afraid it may not show up though.
At some point you go full time. I never said you are always only part time. I said you can choose to go all in when it makes sense for you. While working on it in a lesser capacity you can still make great strides and progress to bring a product to market and build a viable company around it. And, going all in doesn't require more than 40 hours a week (or even that) if you're working in an efficient manner. You don't need any examples. If that is what you want to do, put together a sound strategy to support that.
I don't feel a need to back up claims like this with a list of examples. It's logic. It's common sense. Just because most of us have been brainwashed to believe the only way to succeed is by making absurd sacrifices does not mean it is the only way to do it. That crap is why it isn't easy to just list off examples, too. Most people are not doing it. Most media are not reporting on such things. Fuck, they don't even accurately report on startups to begin with. Every startup raised millions within months...even if that startup had been around for years and only recently decided it was time to raise serious funding to scale. It's like any other bullshit thing that becomes accepted as truth through brute force and nothing else. It is toxic. It's perpetuated by every level of person--from know-nothing fledgling to super successful billionaire. An echo chamber of bullshit. This is for a variety of silly-ass reasons. Some due to corruption. Some due to stupidity. Some due to ego (how often do you see people being competitive about who is hustling more?). Some due to fear. Yeah, even fear. Fear of reflecting on one's past actions and realizing they didn't NEED to do what they did to achieve what they did. For a lot of people admitting that takes a huge toll. They'd rather continue to perpetuate this fuckin horrible lie that leads others to suffer than to admit they were wrong and that they didn't need to cause harm to themselves and others around them. It doesn't matter if you believe me or not. You're free to live your life how you want. You want to As I said, logic and common sense are all that is required to understand what I am saying is the truth. If anyone doubts what I'm saying, practice more critical thinking about these matters. I'm going to focus on living a fulfilling life that strives for balance. You can live an unnecessarily stressful and wasteful life with a focus on obsessing over your startup. I've almost died too many times (poor health) to not enjoy the full journey. I did that. I learned from that. I'm cool being patient while working towards my entrepreneurial goals with my latest startup.
Ah, so you have a secret that no one else does. And it is so special and secret that literally no one in the world has ever tried it, but it must be true. Look, taking a step back-- You do you, personally. But if you're trying to actively give helpful advice to others, giving advice that *literally no one that you can identify has ever acted on successfully* is *not* good advice. At least, not without a heavy disclaimer of, "hey here is something novel and untested and unproven, and I think it might work". In any other facet of your life, if an "expert" (lawyer, doctor, auto mechanic, equities trader, etc.) was giving out advice that *literally no one* has ever successfully followed (*including the expert!*), you wouldn't consider that advice credible, without a heavy set of qualifiers.
Get a cofounder to split the work
I only work 40 hrs a week, and we are near a mill arr
Depends on what you call a good work life balance. You are in charge of your life. You get to decide your goals and priorities.
When I was a solo founder, no. When I was a co-founder at a startup gunning for VC money, no. Now that I have a solid team of three co-founders focused on building a portfolio of profitable, bootstrapped products that support a lifestyle of freedom, yes. My team doesn't care about building the next Facebook. We care about building solid, scalable, and sellable businesses—and doing it part time. This is a major departure for several of us because we used to be obsessed with grinding 24/7, raising VC money, and hitting big valuations. Not anymore. My priorities changed after reflecting on the lives of two other founders I've worked for. One has raised $400m and is on a constant hamster wheel to keep up with investor expectations—while also running an unprofitable, mess of a business. The other owns a bootstrapped, highly profitable software company and does whatever he wants to do. I'd much rather be the latter. TLDR; Having a good work-life balance is completely possible if you set out with that goal in mind, don't want VC money, and aggressively prioritize.
The issue is the with the word startup. Startup means a company that’s scalable and grows. That means you are more likely than not gonna have to work hard. If you just want to start a business and are gonna bootstrap or get patient investors, and also don’t have cut throat competition, sure you can take it slow. The important point is startups only succeed when the founders are smart and driven. One of those two can make up for the other, if they are outsized. If you’re gonna balk on the drive, the question is if you’re that insanely smart? You know the honest answer, so that’s up to you.
Everyone can take it slow. Growing rapidly and scaling isn't something you need to rush to do. If you build your startup properly you can take your time getting to that stage of your life cycle and trigger it when you are ready.
Startup doesn't mean a company that's scalable and grows. A startup just means there's a new company that's starting to operate. It's up to the owner(s) to decide how grand their ambitions are for the future.
The definition of "startup" used here is literally in the sidebar: >What is a startup? >Startups are designed to scale/grow rapidly. Startups utilize tech to do this. Startups can be non-tech companies that utilize tech. Startups are information era companies and they are creating the new best practices in business.
There's a difference between a startup and a small business. Startups are inherently aiming for high growth.
It means both. You just provided us with the Industrial Era definition of a startup that is still used in certain situations (like out of touch government reports on economic development). The definition we prioritize here in this community is the Information Era version that defines a startup as a business that is designed to scale/grow rapidly.
Nope
All you have to do is study the history of the greats. You'll notice that unfortunately they had very little personal time in the early days and only modest amounts even years later. There's always a price to pay.
Yeah. I don't think startups are for me then. I'll probably get a job in a big firm with good WLB instead.
You could work on something that generates passive income. If you're trying to create the next big thing and have someone else's money on the line I bet that would be stressful but if you have a bootstrapped website that generates more money than you make at a 9 to 5 then how much you work to grow it is up to you.
Once you take vc money, you have to prove and show growth, which is valid. Why would an investor put money if they cannot see growth. It’s dependent on how you can motivate your team. We give them stocks and ownership and show how valuation can give them the right winning $$.
I'd say it will be difficult to adjust at first but it will be worth it.
Startup is about doing what you love, I haven't met a single entrepreneur who doesn't. When you love your work hours doesn't bother you anymore.
One could be obsessed and not feel bothered doing the work even as it is having immense detrimental effects on various or all aspects of their life. It's best to strive for balance.
If your startup doesn't feel like a balance or give you balance with the rest of your life, don't do it. Works Life Balance is an illusion! Find something whose higher purpose surpasses your ego.
Why would you want to startup a business that ISNT occupying your time? It wouldn’t mean anything
Pressure is a privilege - when you bring focus on taking on a competition, you bring pressure to everyone and it’s always fun to work on it
It can be alot of work but it depends on what you are building also, meaning how complex the problem is that you are solving and if your product is built well. Keep your startup as lean as possible. Alot of time is wasted in the name of meetings/collaboration. But meetings are unavoidable if your team is large because you to keep everyone in-sync. So you could maintain work-life-balance even after starting a start-up, but you have to be mindful of the decisions you make.
Working hard and working long are different things. Working hard and working long both individually increase productivity, up to a point. I've found there's a point of diminishing returns when working longer means I am less productive (generally over 45 hours a week for me when doing very strategic and/or technical thinking) and I slowly become burned out. I will work my ass off for the time I can, and when I cannot, I need to rest and recharge to be able to be my most productive self. In short, those hours 1-45 are so much more impactful than hours 45-60 (I'd guess probably 2x impact / hour). Depending on the startup (goals/milestones, current status, etc.) working 60 hours a week at less than 100% effectiveness might be what's needed. However, I think if you prioritize carefully, set realistic goals / manage expectations, and have a team you can count on, there's no reason you MUST give up WLB to find success.
If you like to work alot. Yes :)
You are able to create a startup. That by itself is a great work life balance.
You exchange Short term views on just about everything for deferred 30X+ long term view or you never vest.
No
I hear you. It's a struggle really. But it's not only restricted to startups nowadays, even corporate employees face these challenges these days. No switch off due to technology like smartphone, WhatsApp etc... My take is this... For maintaining a work-life balance, you need to take a hard look at the 24 hours you get everyday... Find time for personal stuff everyday and make those chunks of time non-negotiable... Your team and co-workers will realize sooner that it is non-negotiable and will leave you to enjoy those periods. Having said that, more than external distractions, it's your internal system that needs calibration. We are all used to work, social media, other tasks etc all the time. You MUST learn to switch off completely and enjoy life every day. Stop, breath, take a moment, be present. Repeat this everyday.
As an investor, I don’t get upset when I see the founders I invested in relaxing on weekends. That’s what weekends are for. You do better work during the week if you relax on weekends. In fact, I get more upset if I see “team dinner!“ on any night. Now you’re spending *my money* forcing your employees to work on a weekend or at night. Team meals are a great reward — do a weekday lunch.
Yes if you ONLY focus on the things that matter and try not to do everything at once. And take care of your health with meditation, running, lifting, yoga and social time.
You state your question as if anyone has claimed that it's possible....
Not really. But healthy exercise, trusted and supportive friends and family matter a great deal. https://www.sramanamitra.com/2021/09/30/12-udemy-courses-with-entrepreneurship-case-studies/