I see a lot of advice from young and old entrepreneurs (and wanna be entrepreneurs) that "you have to work hard, put in the hours!" to be successful. What they mean is 'you have to work a lot every day / week..."
Do you really? It can work, but do you HAVE to?
I’ve done 100-hour workweeks in investment banking, and 15-20 hour workweeks as an entrepreneur.
There are options on this spectrum.
IMHO putting in the years and decades works better (for me) than putting in 'long hours every week.'
For me, at least with work, when I put in long hours every week I lose touch with my breakthrough ideas. Not to say there are short surges where long hours make sense, but not over long periods of time.
Pick any person who has what you want (success, money, health, family...), and they have as many hours as you do.
Maybe they work harder at it, but just as likely could be reasons like...
they've been at it longer than you, or
they have more of an interest or dedication to it, or
they listen more carefully to their inner 'whispers' and twinkles, or
they're just weird / built that way.
Don't forget that people share online very thin slices of their lives here, which rarely includes their problems.
Everyone - me, you, anyone here - is a regular person with regular shit and problems to deal with. It's easier and more fun to share our superpowers and stories than our everyday problems.
Where do you fall on this "gotta put a lot of hours in every day!" or somewhere else? Or is the amount of time you put into something a distraction from matters most?
😀