Does working relentless hours eventually undermine executive decision-making and business operations?

Question

Accepted Answer

Absolutely. There’s this founder mythology that says more hours equals more progress. Or more accurately, there's a misunderstanding of what a "sprint" means.

It's very appropriate to put in crazy hours with intense focus for brief periods when special conditions dictate; when you are releasing a product, on one side or the other of an M&A transaction, when you are raising a round, etc.

But a sprint is, by definition a *brief* period of intense exertion. You don't run a marathon by stringing together one sprint after another with no break in between.

At a certain point, grinding harder just means you’re making slower, dumber decisions with more confidence. You stop listening. You stop noticing patterns. You confuse motion with progress.

My Tuesday date night wasn’t just about marriage. It was also a forcing function: prove the company can survive without you for a few hours. That’s an operating lesson.

While I might admire what Elon Musk (and Mr. Beast) have managed to build by working continuosly, I don't admire what it has done to the quality of their lives or their health.

If your business only works when you’re exhausted and omnipresent - and when you force everyone around you to be the same, you don’t have a company yet. You have a job with worse hours and less stability.