The classic argument for enduring 80 to 100 hour work weeks for years on end — sacrificing relationships, hobbies, and anything else that doesn’t progress the mission — is that at the end of the rainbow lies early retirement. The reward for risking it all on a crazy startup idea. This wonderful place is filled with anything you want it to be. Never a dull moment again, all the flexibility and freedom in the world.
I’m Jack’s sense of utter disbelief.
Why does the idea of work have to be so bad that you want to sacrifice year’s worth of prime living to get away from it forever? The answer is that it doesn’t. Finding something you to love to work on seems to be a much more fruitful pursuit than trying to get away from the notion of work altogether.
It’s much easier too! The likelihood that you’ll strike gold after year’s of death-march living is still pretty low. The chance of finding something you love doing? So much more achievable. Millions of dollars not required.
If you come to the realization that work in itself isn’t evil, you can stop living your life as a waterfall-planned software project too. No need to divide your timeline on earth into the false dichotomies of Sucky Work Era and Blissful Retirement Era. Instead, you can just fill your life with a balanced mix of activities that you can sustain for decades.
Wendy
on 03 Jul 08Working on startup, work like a crazy cow lemming towards the idea of getting early retirement is not all that bad. It is just as much better than throwing yourself into corporate cubicle which suck every inch of your life.
Probably the word retirement is just another way to say, they are now free to do what they want. Spend more time do less sucky work. And well, get a life again.
someone
on 03 Jul 08@Wendy: thankfully there doesn’t need to be a strict bifurcation between being a cubicle slave and being a startup workaholic lunatic. there is another way. :)
the idea here is balance.
Don
on 03 Jul 08Great post. Agree 1,000,000% :)
Mark Holton
on 03 Jul 08Thanks for posting these thoughts.
And then what do you do when you do strike it rich? You’d then all of a sudden do what you loved? Why wait? What a tragedy that would be.
I had a Physics professor in college—a great man. About 8 years ago, on about his 68th birthday, he invited a few of us students to his retirement party. I’ll never forget his speech. He spoke of others having more fame, more fortune, more [this], more [that], but he said “I can tell you though, nobody loved their job more than me”
Even if you are doing what you love, not everyday is a bowl of cherries, but if you are on a path doing what you love to do, and pointed towards new challenges, it truly does make a difference.
Jay Levitt
on 03 Jul 08While I share your basic suspicion that “early retirement” is a myth, perpetuated by Big Bingo…
I think it might be less easily dismissed with a “n00b” snort if you were actually 69 years old, and not 29.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go work on my new piece for Vanity Fair: How to achieve the dream-waistline of your dreams, just weeks after pregnancy.
Matt Elliott
on 03 Jul 08The classic notion of ‘retirement’ is entirely unappealing. What are you supposed to do after 65? It’s not like it used to be, where at 65+ you maybe had another 5 good years and then you were done.
I expect my goal as an older person will be pretty much the same as it is now as a younger person: to love what I do, to live comfortably, to never sacrifice “work” for “life”, which is a false dichotomy to begin with.
Good post.
Matt Elliott yworking.com
Arthur Klepchukov
on 03 Jul 08Does anyone think this applies to higher education? Sometimes I feel like I’m sacrificing 4 prime years of my life for an uncertain reward provided by a degree (or in my case, a double-major).
rynmrtn
on 03 Jul 08I agree.
I agree not just because of the ‘early retirement’ part, but because of the general theme that DHH always exhibits – that life is something that needs balance. Without it, you will always neglect yourself and those around you.
Matt Gillooly
on 03 Jul 08I’m curious: given the average person aiming for early retirement, how much time have they spent talking to actual retirees about the idea?
yohami
on 03 Jul 08I agree. Otherwise its just forcing yourself to do something and dreaming to get rid of it. What is expecting you on retirement anyway? finding what you really love and who you really are? thats what you´re supposed to be doing right now.
Its like a tennis player going to a championship thinking on his early retirement. Aint gonna win it. Totally mislead.
William Murray
on 03 Jul 08One of my favorite quotes nicely sums up this entry. The businessman and author Harvey Mackay said, “Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”
Jim
on 03 Jul 08Amen.
I had a friend literally COMMIT SUICIDE over basically that very dichotomy. 50 came, and…he wasn’t in the peaceful bliss of non-work (again – he spent his 20s and early 30s as an itinerant rock/mountain climber). 20 years of stellar and ever-increasing impressive work and titles later, it wasn’t enough, and…he hanged himself. AFAICT, for not being independently wealthy and not having to work at 49+.
I’m still pissed – three years later.
Tom Mornini
on 03 Jul 08I think that David is right, in a sense, but true retirement is not really what people strive for, even when they themselves state it that way.
I think that people strive for the ability to retire early. Options are always good, right? After all, if you try retiring early, but instead find yourself bored, it’s easy to go back to work!
It’s nice to think of living comfortably on earned assets! When you achieve that, you can take as much time to navigate your life, and make very aggressive (read risky) decisions about your future direction. If your decision proves unwise, you can still live comfortably on those assets, and move on to the next thing…
In the end, I think the concept of early retirement is frequently confused with the desire for security as much as anything else.
In any case, it doesn’t require a grand exit to achieve this. Much more likely and more manageable to start saving early and lead a lifestyle well below your income level.
Ah, to be young again and know what I know now! :-)
Tony
on 03 Jul 08I don’t know if what you say is true or not (though I’d like to believe it is), but I love the Fight Club reference…
Matt Radel
on 03 Jul 08Love what you do and the rest will fall into place. My problem is that I love what I do soooo much that I sometimes struggle with unplugging.
I am Jack’s swelling sense of pride.
Evan
on 03 Jul 08I seriously doubt that early retirement is a frequent goal for those working exceptionally long hours. People that choose to work 80+ hour weeks are very rarely the people with dreams of retirement—they’re people that want to make something awesome.
This is, of course, totally unrelated to the idea that you may be able to make something equally (or more) awesome by not working that many hours.
Eric
on 03 Jul 08I just do what I love. The rest works itself out as long as you’re smart about it.
Dean Richardson
on 03 Jul 08Thanks, David. I needed to hear this counsel now, and I’ll need it again in the future, I’m sure.
Sean Iams
on 03 Jul 08I’m tired of the term “work/life balance”. Is work so awful that it needs to be separated from the notion of life? Work is a very significant component of life, and if you truly want to enjoy life, work should be enjoyed and balanced with the other components of life and included with the overall notion of life.
The term should just be “life balance” and not “work/life balance”.
Splashman
on 03 Jul 08I couldn’t agree more. “Retirement” is a pleasant concept to many, but in practice, both the pursuit and achievement are destructive to joyful life.
Scott Loftesness
on 03 Jul 08Great perspective. Brings to mind a message delivered again to me recently in the movie The Bucket List: “Find the joy in your life.” Couldn’t be simpler – or more profound.
carlivar
on 03 Jul 0880-100 hour work weeks for years and years? People really do that? A 100 hour week is over 14 hours of work a day for all 7 days a week!
avin
on 03 Jul 08Great post. And so much better to warn younger entrepreneurs (such as myself) of the myth so they don’t find the reality when it’s too late!
Goes great with Timothy Ferris’ The Four Hour Work Week.
Michael Cage
on 03 Jul 08Matt,
I couldn’t agree more.
Most people don’t “get” that when they read things like the 4-Hour Work Week (that promise an early-early-retirement) ... they are still buying into the same old industrial age myth of “work sucks, so do as little of it as you can so you can live your life when you aren’t working.”
The whole idea of work-life-separation, imo, sucks.
If you’ll excuse the plug, I wrote a long post about this (it is a real pet issue of mine with entrepreneurs, in particular) on my blog. http://www.entrepreneurslife.com/
Daniel Gibbons
on 03 Jul 08Some advice my father gave me was never to defer the things you wanted to do. He said this shortly after my mother died (at the age of 56), and after spending years planning a life in France that never materialized.
I really like the idea of diversity in work. One of the greatest things about web business models is the ability to generate small, cash-flowing businesses very quickly. These are sneeringly referred to as “lifestyle” businesses by VCs and the startup blogs, but they offer freedom in work rather than the myth of some future freedom from work.
C
on 03 Jul 08@Michael Cage: I don’t know if I agree with your synopsis of 4HWW 100%. The message I took from it was life shouldn’t be wasted working towards for your retirement, it should be spent doing things you love.
@everyone: even if you love your job, you should read the 4HWW at least once.
Jared
on 03 Jul 08Hmm.. I feel like this is in response to an article that was written recently ;)
I think the reward at the end is that you can finally stop treading water, and you can really focus on whatever you want to. The idea is to stop the treading of water as soon as possible, because any 9-5 is going to lock you in to a lifestyle that most people just don’t enjoy.
Of course it all depends on how big you want to go. Obviously, a massively scaled business (think PayPal) is going to require a lot more time commitment than a smaller, niche market that DHH was speaking about at Startup School 08. And there’s nothing wrong with either direction people take, it’s their choice whether they want to put in the wrench time for a much larger company, and also pocket the risk. But I don’t think you should be telling these kids that they should focus on smaller, much more “realistic” ideas at the same time. That should be their call, and I think Steve Jobs will agree with me when saying don’t settle for anything less.
However, I definitely agree that most startups should have pricing included in their road map somewhere, especially if it’s a B2B type of company. But you can’t apply that rule everywhere either (and it seems to be in the case of massively scaled companies, like Google, where the first year there was absolutely no advertising).
I’ll have a follow-up on my article pretty soon, this is a tough topic because there are success stories on both sides of the work week fence, so to speak.
Stefan
on 03 Jul 08Word!
Jarkko
on 03 Jul 08Hear hear! You can do what you love, without killing yourself and still make a nice living.
@Michael Cage: I completely agree with C, I think you’ve completely misunderstood 4HWW. The whole underlying premise of the book is that life doesn’t have to be excruciatingly expensive and that you should live your life now, not after X years of slavery to be able to retire early. I don’t wholly agree with all the methods Tim suggests, but the basis of his thesis is very sane.
Zach
on 03 Jul 08I think this is fundamentally a “do what makes you happy post.”
A million people have said the same thing.
And it’s still good advice.
coldclimate
on 03 Jul 08Tomorrow is my last day working for my current employeer. I quit because I had a moment of clarity and realised I was chasing the rainbow of making partner and settling down. Time to live my life, not flog it away.
Dave Slusher
on 03 Jul 08Hello, puritan work ethic! There is nothing morally special about working for work’s sake, and nothing wrong with having the means to keep the bills paid without it. I have spent most of the last decade saving up for my own early retirement and planning around it. I like what I do and I like my current job but I still want the freedom to choose what I do each and every day.
Tom Mornini’s take is the most like mine. When you have the backing of enough means to live regardless what your work status, you have the ability to take chances, to do work that you may enjoy but isn’t profitable, to alter your lifestyle as you see fit. If you require the presence of a job to give your life meaning, you’ve already got things the wrong way around in my opinion.
Frank Boës
on 03 Jul 08...and you got to consider, that there may be a chance that you never will live long enough to get to see your retirement. So at least for me it’s “be happy right where you are, for you never now what tomorrow brings”. If you are unhappy and see that you will be unhappy for the next few years, you may want to reconsider your masterplan.
Ted Goas
on 03 Jul 08Great insight!
For those who doubt the corporate life… I’m a designer who works in a cubicle on a crappy ThinkPad. I just took a boring sexual harassment course as part of corporate policy.
I also wear cargo shorts, listen to music out loud and play ping pong at work. I worked on my laptop while watching Euro Cup last week at 3pm. We get our work done and exceed our number every month. I enjoy my present life, am paid well but won’t be retiring before 60.
I favor the corporate atmosphere (even ones not as casual as this) over the start-up or agency life.
Don Schenck
on 03 Jul 08Last summer I was hospitalized for four days with what was diagnosed as a life-threatening malady. As the tests came and went and the news got worse and worse, I looked Death in the eye.
It wasn’t the things I DID that I regretted … it was the things I DIDN’T DO that I got angry about.
Something to think about.
john
on 03 Jul 08This is easy advice to give, esp. as DHH is young and actually much closer to early retirement than most of his readers. Much, much closer.
But maybe he feels bad for us losers chasing the tail we’ll never catch up to. Hence the advice, which is OK, but also sort of obvious (you’d hope).
Really, anybody working 80-100 hours a week is going to kill themselves, but 50-60 is fairly manageable, and even some doctors (who do what they love AND often retire early) do that and then some.
#I’d also guess that the VAST majority of people working in the 60-80 range make very little - probably not much more than minimum wage. That tidbit changes the perspective of everything - even a dream is a privilege.
#So they’re just trying to live, and work for them is truly just to get by. Those of us dreaming of early retirement probably see ourselves as creative, and the early retirement bit is just a shot at more creativity, and freedom.
I see nothing wrong with that.
karim kanji
on 03 Jul 08Retirement is not a pipe dream. The majority of people work at jobs or careers they were not born to do. If these same people have seen the light and want to do something they love then good on them. If they see retirement as being able to pursue their reason for being then why should you, me or anyone else crap on them?
Someone who loves their job/career/business is in a fortunate position. Most likely they are in this position because they used to hate their job and dreamed of pursuing their passion. Good on them!
KK
NewWorldOrder
on 03 Jul 08The real problem is that most people haven’t found what they loved. I think through life people get jaded and fall into the false belief that you can’t really do something you love AND
NewWorldOrder
on 03 Jul 08(my bad, my hand hit the enter key before I was finished typing) ...get paid for it.
I think a quote from Earl Nightingale is appropriate here.
“In an age where we’ve come to nearly deify leisure time, we’ve almost lost sight of the fact that virtually all of our satisfactions, rewards will come not from our leisure, but from our work.”
And he said that back in the 60’s.
Anonymous Coward
on 03 Jul 08I have know several people who have died of heart attacks or strokes with in months of retiring. I have watched several of my friends mentally go down hill after retiring as well.
Keith
on 03 Jul 08I have never met anyone in business over the age of 60 that isn’t doing it because they enjoy it. Quite honestly, if when you can retire you opt not to…that’s a testament of both how well you chose your career and how you enjoy spending your time.
I fail to see how retired by 40 would be awesome. Quite honestly, I’d rip my eyes out…If you endure the kind of hours suggested here then I don’t see how you could ever just switch that off. You’re clearly driven, retirement changes a lot but it doesn’t change who you are.
Ed
on 03 Jul 08According to this article: http://www.macleans.ca/canada/national/article.jsp?content=20080625_50113_50113
Canadians live longer, healthier, happier and have less debt compare to the US counterpart.
Now, some of you might say the survey/statistics is bias. But think about it before you judge the article:
If you’re an American, do you often hear/read/see books, tv-shows, news, articles more about:
1) How to solve “Mortgage” problems
2) How to solve “Self-Confident” problems
3) How to “get rich and retire early” problems
4) How to “build the successful” company
5) How to “Live healthy”
6) How to “Solve 401k” issues
7) How to “Manage your investments” issues
Apparently, most books/news/articles are ignoring basic advises such as:
1) How to “Accept reality”
2) How to “Deal with life accordingly”
3) How to “Enjoy your job” (whatever your job is)
4) How to “Manage your money (not via stock investment, mutual funds, insurance, 401k but via hard-work, save some money, buy necessary items, buy lands instead of stocks etc)
Giles Bowkett
on 03 Jul 08I think the waterfall analogy is the strongest thing here.
Waterfall software development, waterfall life plan – same thing.
Eldon Berg
on 03 Jul 08Agree 100%
I am 60 and have several friends who have retired and meet weekly for coffee. Their main complaint is boredom and honey do lists they should have done years ago.
I am in the process of learning Ruby & Rails so I certainly lack boredom.
When asked what I am up to, most look at me like I have 3 heads and try recommending retirement.
They don’t seem to get it, it must have been their years doing a job that sucked.
Jin
on 03 Jul 08“Work,” “Retirement,” “Happiness,” etc are merely words.
They mean different things to different people. Don’t get too caught up on labels.
Ani Jovanova
on 03 Jul 08I couldn’t agree more with this post. Considering how much time of our lives we spend working, we better enjoy what we do!
I’m not looking forward to a retirement - I see it as the most boring time of our lives. I hope by the time I get to “retire” the world will be so exciting for grannies that it will really pay off :) But I see myself as being occupied with some type of work activity - maybe not for as many hours as now, but still being productive.
I think no matter how old you are you need a sense of accomplishment. And what a better way than working on something that has a purpose.
Eduardo
on 03 Jul 08Well, it seems someone is just being jelous about those who are doing in this and just know that certainly many people will really succeed doing this couple-of-years-to-millions-startup thing.
Robert
on 04 Jul 08While I agree with the post, within the context of “Early Retirement”, I think some comments are falling outside the context and covering more about just working excessively.
Fortunately, everyone is different and everyone’s perception varies as well as their economic means (perhaps not so fortunately these days). With economy as it is, high unemployment, some people are in the position where that have to work harder (or work two jobs) to maintain their job that feeds their family and little ones. Not everyone’s situation is that same, perhaps one individual is working hard to move up the ladder in corporate America, or a freelancer who just reeled in a high profile client and wants to impress, etc.
Again, my comments above aren’t directed at the context of the post, but rather to anyone who thinks that someone isn’t making the best choices when working more than a 40 hour work week in order to keep their job. The notion of not working the hours or leaving your job in this economy, would be even less wise.
Not everyone can share your success and adhere to your rules when they are just trying to make ends meat to feed their family. Just another perspective to keep in mind, nothing more.
Pavel Pichardo
on 04 Jul 08I believe that people who love what they do, no matter what, are the people who CAN (but doesn’t) retire early… they reach that goal easily.
Rick Belben
on 04 Jul 08The key is to love what you are doing and then it it is not just work. The sad truth is how many people ultimately love what they do for a living.? Or maybe it should be how many eally can not stand what they are doing but do not have much choice.
Serge
on 04 Jul 08eldon, your comment is very inspiring… keep on rocking
Loic
on 04 Jul 08If I remember properly the results from the Okinawa study, it was mainly the fact that people never really retired that made them live so long (and also a diet rich in fish).
Work is tremendously important in someone’s life… better find something rewarding to do (rather than simply something you ‘like’).
First Things First by Stephen Covey is a good book to help on that matter.
Pao
on 04 Jul 08I concur.
Eoghan McCabe
on 04 Jul 08Tangental point: 10 years of life now is not equal (in terms of health, energy, opportunity, etc.) to 10 years of life in 30 years. Also, life later is less sure than life now (you could step in front of a taxi next year).
Mark Meeus
on 04 Jul 08I agree for 1000% with DHH, you have to live life now. However, that’s easy to say if you managed to get yourself in such a position. For those of us who are not entrepreneurs, or lack the creativity to achieve such a life, it is not that easy. The quality of their work-life depends entirely on their employer.
The question is: Can employers create such a life for their employees? Treating employees like customers maybe? Where (work/)life-balance is actually a side-product sold by the employer, paid with time (time = money) by the employee?
Also, I think the main reason why people hate their jobs is not the actual work they have to do, but the culture in which they have to do it. IMHO: if the atmosphere is great, people do anything, and love to do it. Work needs to become a part of the “good-life”.
John Guzo
on 04 Jul 08Say that to a construction worker.
Christopher Hawkins
on 05 Jul 08LOL @ DHH talking down about early retirement while he’s perched on a great big pile of money.
Ask someone who is barely scraping by in a shit job what they think about the idea of early retirement.
Terry
on 05 Jul 08@Christopher Hawkins Just because DHH is banking doesn’t discount his point. Why not talk about the actual post instead of poisoning the well?
And anyone who is barely scraping by in a shit job isn’t pursuing what they love, which is the whole point.
Have fun working and living now, and pushing everything into sequential buckets (school, then work, then kids, then retirement, then hopefully a vacation, then die).
Justin Bell
on 07 Jul 08And anyone who is barely scraping by in a shit job isn’t pursuing what they love, which is the whole point.
And what makes you think they’re in a position to pursue what they love if they’re barely scraping by in their current position?
Jeff Newman
on 08 Jul 08I believe that people can put too much emphasis on trying to make money that they lose track of what is really important in life. God says that you can’t worship Him and money. He says that you will love one and hate the other. When we love something more than God this means that we are worshipping an idol. Early retirement is definitely an idol for many peopel.
This discussion is closed.