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How to Work 80+ Hour Weeks

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Re: How to Work 80+ Hour Weeks

#11

Post by martythemaniak »

hugh wrote: post #4
martythemaniak wrote: post #2

"The real truth is, entrepreneurs have a much greater respect for life and the purpose of a startup is to condense much of what would have been a very dull, very boring 9-5 for 40-50 years into a fast-paced, stress-intensive 4-7 year startup." The real truth is, that won't happen unless you hit a jackpot, so if you're actually banking on working 100hr weeks in startup, so you can relax later on, I suggest taking 30mi…

I'd say it's not nearly that unlikely. If you're smart, you have a good idea, and you work hard on it, your chances of that kind of success (and we're only talking the $10 million payday here, not the $billion payday) are something on the order of one third. What I'm more concerned about is the fact that the guy said he tried a four-hour workweek but got bored, and now he wants to work 100-hour weeks so he can retire…

$10m company payday, or $10m personal payday? If you're looking for a $10m personal payday, your company needs to be brought at for quite a bit more (depending on number of founders and investors), so if we consider the set of smart, hardworking people, the percentage of those that sell their company for $50-100m is substantially less than 30%.

Now, if you and the author are talking about $10m company payday (lets say $1-2m for yourself), that's about a decade or two of decent income (ie, not enough to retire) and as you mentioned, what would someone used to working 100hr weeks and labeling relationships as "distractions" do with their time? I'm really failing to see the author's point to all this.

Re: How to Work 80+ Hour Weeks

#12

Post by edw519 »

Any coincidence that OP has exactly 168 karma (as of this post)?

I clicked on this when I read "How to..."

Nice stream of consciousness essay, but I'm still waiting for the "how to".

http://www.stevepavlina.com/ has lots of good answers to OP's original "how to" question.

I also love this quote:

“Sincerity begins at a little over 100 hours a week. You can probably get to 110 on a sustained basis, but it’s hard – you have to get down to eating once a day, showering every other day, and things of that sort to really get your life organized to work 110 hours a week.” - Len Bosack, Cisco co-founder

Re: How to Work 80+ Hour Weeks

#13

Post by jmtame »

edw519 wrote: post #12

Any coincidence that OP has exactly 168 karma (as of this post)? I clicked on this when I read "How to..." Nice stream of consciousness essay, but I'm still waiting for the "how to". http://www.stevepavlina.com/ has lots of good answers to OP's original "how to" question. I also love this quote: “Sincerity begins at a little over 100 hours a week. You can probably get to 110 on a sustained basis, but it’s hard – you…

I think I arrived at the same conclusion as you did... it's very difficult, and I'm not sure I have the one-size-fits-all answer. Would certainly be nice if I did =)

And having 168 karma (the number of total hours available in a week) is no coincidence. I of course plan these things out well ahead of time. That's very observant that you noticed though.

Re: How to Work 80+ Hour Weeks

#14

Post by rekcuts »

gizmo wrote: post #9
hugh wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say it's not nearly that unlikely. If you're smart, you have a good idea, and you work hard on it, your chances of that kind of success (and we're only talking the $10 million payday here, not the $billion payday) are something on the order of one third. What I'm more concerned about is the fact that the guy said he tried a four-hour workweek but got bored, and now he wants to work 100-hour weeks so he can retire…

Then you'll be forced to find something else to do. You can't watch TV 80 hours a week for a year - you'll go crazy. But you can watch 4 TV hours a day, every day, for the entire duration of your life. That is 28 hours a week. Or 1 year in 4. Probably the guy will take a break for 6 months after/when he succeeds, then do it all over again. Or he'll start doing something else obsessively. Either way he's not going to…

1 year in 6.

Re: How to Work 80+ Hour Weeks

#15

Post by edw519 »

jmtame wrote: post #13
edw519 wrote: post #12

Any coincidence that OP has exactly 168 karma (as of this post)? I clicked on this when I read "How to..." Nice stream of consciousness essay, but I'm still waiting for the "how to". http://www.stevepavlina.com/ has lots of good answers to OP's original "how to" question. I also love this quote: “Sincerity begins at a little over 100 hours a week. You can probably get to 110 on a sustained basis, but it’s hard – you…

I think I arrived at the same conclusion as you did... it's very difficult, and I'm not sure I have the one-size-fits-all answer. Would certainly be nice if I did =) And having 168 karma (the number of total hours available in a week) is no coincidence. I of course plan these things out well ahead of time. That's very observant that you noticed though.

I really like reading blogs of hn members. I usually click on their name to learn more about them and see how long they've been here (and to see if they became a member just to promote their blog).

"168" jumped off the page. The universe must think you're on to something.

Re: How to Work 80+ Hour Weeks

#16

Post by ph0rque »

krschultz wrote: post #6
martythemaniak wrote: post #2

"The real truth is, entrepreneurs have a much greater respect for life and the purpose of a startup is to condense much of what would have been a very dull, very boring 9-5 for 40-50 years into a fast-paced, stress-intensive 4-7 year startup." The real truth is, that won't happen unless you hit a jackpot, so if you're actually banking on working 100hr weeks in startup, so you can relax later on, I suggest taking 30mi…

The real question though is why you would WANT to retire in 10 years? He would be 32 or 34, and he will have spent his entire 20s elminating time for friends, relationships, and hobbies. So you get to the 30s, and suddenly you have 10 million dollars and what are you going to do? Stop working and do nothing? He already said he doesn't want to do that. And if you try to meet someone for a relationship - it is somewhat…

I think for me, the balance is somewhere in the middle: work 6 hour workdays at my dayjob (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=231642), and work on my ideas part-time. If an idea becomes successful, that will become my dayjob, and I will continue working on other ideas, since they never really end, or do something else on the side (spend time with family, perhaps home-school my kids, etc.)

Re: How to Work 80+ Hour Weeks

#18

Post by gizmo »

rekcuts wrote: post #14
gizmo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you'll be forced to find something else to do. You can't watch TV 80 hours a week for a year - you'll go crazy. But you can watch 4 TV hours a day, every day, for the entire duration of your life. That is 28 hours a week. Or 1 year in 4. Probably the guy will take a break for 6 months after/when he succeeds, then do it all over again. Or he'll start doing something else obsessively. Either way he's not going to…

1 year in 6.

I subtracted sleep. 16 waking hours, 4 TV.
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