My $ 2.25 billion of exit taught me that the Silicon Valley obsessed with 100 hours a week is actually sabotage. It’s a marathon, not a sprint

As a result, the CEOs arrive at meetings with urgent implementation, the founders work on extreme schedules, and entrepreneurs sacrifice the journey, vacation and personal relationships for one reason. All-night before the great launch has been the technology industry staple, which is doing a good story to tell later, but this is something different. The intensity is considerable; The AI ​​Revolution creates both ecstasy and pain to an equal extent as a growing number of self-reported 100-hour work weeks or open letter requests for employees work on a long-term 80-hour schedule.

But by observing this intensity first, I believe that there is another perspective that is worth considering to build sustainable companies during disruption.

When I have built and sold the company for $ 2.25 billion, I have learned that entrepreneurs who create sustainable value and important exits are not those who burn themselves in 100 hours. They understand that « overnight success lasts seven years » and that a 100 -hour week working for a long period of time is unsustainable.

Success is a unifying game

Building a company is not a sprint – it’s a sprint marathon. In many team sports, such as hockey, « repeated sprints » metrics are a better performance predictor than a straight line. The business is the same – you need to know when to push, but you also need to learn to return quickly and most importantly how to continue, again and again. The real value will not work indefinitely for a quarter. It comes from combining talents, combining expertise in the field, combining brand recognition and customer confidence, and combining product features.

This combination only happens when you are in the game long enough to see it through. And you can only stay in the game if you work at a lasting pace.

I have learned to limit the hard path

Part of what makes a mature entrepreneur or executive action is to know where the boundaries are and of long-term sustainability and short-term bursts of the strategic. There are times sprinting and times to synchronize yourself. Wisdom is to know what is what.

When I started my first business at the age of 18, I at the same time had a full-time job and completed a university degree. This pace would be unsustainable for me at the age of 40 with children. But here’s what the 100 -hour evangelists need: I compensate for more than a small divorce with decades of practical experiences, connections and patterns identifying.

100 -hour work week is a blatant myth

Let us be honest: many of the 100 -hour working weeks are either exaggeration or unsustainable abnormalities. Although there may be unique individuals who can truly maintain this rate, both personal experience and medical research constantly show that sleep is less productive.

More importantly, business and product development is a high-profile game. We are paid to make important decisions on the basis of uncertainty, often without complete information and then live with consequences. The quality of these decisions is rapidly deteriorating with exhaustion. Do you want your surgeon to work during their work week?

When ‘hard work’ becomes a red flag

Here is a story: when the founders claim that they are tired of working too much, something is basically wrong. When the founders really work sustainably for long periods of time, it is typically a work of love – they are flowing, not about it.

Current AI panic produces different dynamic. The founders describe an in -depth paranoia activity that deals every fifteen minutes as a price tag that feels that everything is urgent and critical. This is not a passion; It’s panic. And panic rarely produces good long -term decisions.

It’s a spiritual game, and if you are in the wrong state of mind, you won’t last long enough to see the benefits of connecting. Pieces before the business model proves itself before your team gels before your product finds the suitability of the market.

Businesses lie about the balance of work and family life (and it hurts everyone)

I hope that HR policies, both in Europe and in the United States, give companies and individuals more open about work expectations. It is perfectly great that some founders and businesses are pushed hard – intavis often requires intensity. The problem arises when expectations have come away.

Some startup companies need people who are ready to work on start -up lessons. Some people succeed in that environment. The topic is when companies pretend to provide work and family life while waiting for 80 hours a week, or when candidates overestimate work ethics during interviews. This cutting hurts everyone.

Oh changes everything except human biology

Yes, AI represents a significant technological change. Yes, companies must adapt. Urgency is real and well documented. However, the laws of human physiology and psychology remain unchanged. Sustainable success will continue to be created by the construction of strong teams, making good decisions and staying in the game long enough to combine your interest.

My experience is confirmed by this: a company that I built for $ 2.25 billion was not the result of 100 hours of grinding. There was a lot of grinding to get around. Still, it was more than the result of good teamwork and a consistent, strategic decision -making over the years, by building systems that could scale and maintains spiritual clarity needed to navigate complex market dynamics. Early burnt founders never saw their unifying effects.

It is irony that urgently that AI does not leave, many use work models that virtually guarantee their businesses are not long enough to benefit from the AI ​​revolution.

Build in the long run. Feeling limited and ready to be people who can’t fit them. Create sustainable excellence in the team. The combination takes care of the rest.

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