Like I ranted about last week, working hard seems to be a lost art. For some reason, there is an expectation that a shortcut to everything must exist and that discovering the quickest way to achieve something should be where most of your effort is focused.
I call B.S.
Anyone that is trying to sell you the secret to getting the results you desire in business, fitness, knowledge, or a specific skill is usually just trying to rip you off.
You want the real secret to success? Put in the damn work.
The 4-Hour Pipe Dream
Think about how little time four hours a week really is. Do you think you could really build a successful business in a year only working four hours a week? That is barely over a half hour a day.
On the flip side, I believe that to truly succeed in business or your personal life you need to put in the time and effort.
And I don’t mean spending just a few hours on the weekend or only listening to podcasts during your commute to work. I mean nose to the grindstone, highly focused attention spent on getting things done that will get you closer to your end goal, whatever that may be.
The 100 Hour Workweek
The 40 hour workweek was made popular by Henry Ford in the early 1900′s, but it has now become the mainstay for many countries around the world.
It includes just enough time each day to work, enough time to relax, and enough time for sleep before repeating it all over again.
If you want to radically change your position in life though, you’ll most likely need to be “working” more than forty hours a week. Especially if you still have your dayjob and are building up a side hustle.
Sure, you can eventually make your way back down to a reasonable amount of time spent working each week, but why is everyone so afraid to put in the time?
While working a hundred hours a week isn’t really a sustainable level for most people, if you are actually passionate about what you are doing, a 100HWW can be one of the best weeks in your life for a few reasons.
- When you enjoy what you are working on the time will fly by.
- You can make progress faster when your time spent working is lumped together.
- Putting in 100 hours in a single week is something you’ll want to avoid having to do in the long-run, so doing it once towards the beginning will show you why you need to work efficiently.
- If you’re learning something new you should be able to get over the learning curve in a single week instead of wasting a few months struggling.
If you are really serious about turning your life or business around you have to be willing to put in the time.
And sometimes that means putting the rest of your life on hold for a week so that you can really make a dent in what you are trying to do.
***
Have you ever put in a 100-hour workweek?
If so, was it worth it? If not, why haven’t you?
Let me know in the comments below this post.
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
While I can’t firmly attest to a 100WW currently, back when I was a chef years ago, I worked overseas 18 hour days/6 days a week. That’s 108 hours/wk for very little pay. It was a choice that paid off in experience vs. monetary gain.
Today, I think if you put a LOT of time in upfront, for months and even years with your business, a 4 hour DAY is a very realistic scenario. A 4 hour WEEK on the other hand is mythical, unless you own several properties and have property management dealing with all of the details.
Good point Jeff. I agree that you should putting in the time upfront to work less later is the way to go. Expecting to just be able to work four hours a week from the get-go is not going to happen.
I haven’t hit 100 yet, but I did manage to pull off 70-80 hours/week for about six months before leaving my day job to be self-employed full-time.
It wasn’t pretty…
I was sick for four months straight with a cold I couldn’t shake, my short-term memory was shot and I wasn’t a very pleasant person to be around.
That said, I wasn’t using all those hours to work on projects I care about like I do now. And I suppose it also depends on whether your “100 hours” includes learning, brainstorming and other activities beyond straight up, nose to the grindstone productive work.
In general, I think working that many hours can definitely help you to make progress quickly, but it’s also worth balancing that effort with your physical and mental health, as well as your relationships with the people around you. Hard work is important, but business is a long-run game. If you burn yourself out in the short term (and, admittedly, the level of effort required to do so will be different for everyone), what’s going to keep you in it for the long haul?
Thanks for sharing Sarah. There really is a difference between working 70+ hours a week on things you enjoy doing vs. you are semi-forced to do to get a paycheck.
I would say that the “100 hours” would include learning and brainstorming. Even if you are just laying in bed trying to fall asleep while listening to a podcast or eBook that is still “work”.
I don’t advocate putting in this many hours over the long haul either. After one intense week it takes me a few days to get back in the groove. I agree with you that getting burned out is the last thing you want to do.
Great post again Caleb. People are afraid to put in the work. I think that a lot of our society is scared to do it for fear of failure. They are afraid that if they give their absolute all to something and it fails then they won’t be able to recover.
Failure is what leads to success. Thomas Edison agrees. Henry Ford agrees. You and anyone else who has been successful I believe would agree.
I wish more of my projects failed catastrophically. This is when you learn the greatest lessons.
Keep up the excellent work.
Totally agree Shawn. While you don’t want failure all the time, every once and a while a good face plant is what you need to keep you on track.
I think a sustainable approach gets you further in the long run, and occasional bursts of massive action are healthy.
To me, a sustainable approach includes time for reflection and working on the business (i.e. systems), and then time for working in the business.
A recurring theme in the book 4HWW is taking shortcuts. I think building business systems that generate consistently great results in less time are ideal, and a type of shortcut that works. 4HWW offers ideas on this.
But throughout 4HWW are also scenarios where you win by technicalities. I do not see this approach working with customers and your business’s operations for too long.
So, my philosophy is to try to learn how to work smarter and faster over time to generate better results with less effort, but that requires hard work today.
Great post - it was thought provoking.
Great feedback Johnn, I really appreciate it.
Sustainability is definitely the long-term goal, so I completely agree with your philosophy.
I think that for there to be exponential success you have to develop those systems and grow an audience through nothing other than hard and focused work.
Amen and Hallelujah.
I see that I’m preaching to the choir here?
If I count all the time I waste online, my day job and all my side projects I’m probably at 100 hours a week. Easy to do if you work weekends.
Now staying focused at 8,9,10,11 at night is the hard part.
If you can’t stay focused in the evenings hack your day to include more time where you can stay focused. Try going to bed super early if you work best in the morning.
Just do what works best for you.
Thanks for stopping by Tyler.
I can’t say for sure I’ve hit 100 hours, but I’m sure I’ve come close in my grad school days of thesis writing. Looking back, I do feel pretty damn good about those times and getting shit done.
I don’t think 100 hour work weeks are sustainable, but I do think they’re useful when you use them at times that are needed.
Writing a thesis would definitely get you up there in hours. I’m glad I have never had to write one. :p
And I agree. 100 hour weeks are not sustainable over the long haul, but every once and while it feels great to work that hard on something you care about.
I think you’ve totally missed the point.
Tim Ferriss, and most like him, never advocate not working hard. The underlying message is always to use systems and outsourcing as much as possible.
Most often that means you start by doing all the work yourself (as did Tim Ferriss, if you’ve read his book) and then cut back your insane hours by implementing elements that can take you out of the loop.
You never start by minimal working hours. You begin by working hard, just like you advocate, but with the end goal in mind to reduce your hours by creating systems. (Check out The E-Myth, by Garber, for more on that.)
I run a Keller-Williams real estate office (in addition to my coaching work). I’ve met agents who have built teams over time, eventually completely replacing themselves. They spend anywhere from 4-10 hours a week on that business - checking in with the CEO they’ve hired to run their business - and focus the rest of their time building additional businesses or mentoring or just enjoying life.
So don’t dismiss it as completely impossible. It takes the kind of work you’re talking about to get to the point you’re calling B.S.
Additionally, I’d point you to the book 6 Steps to 7 Figures, by Pat Hiban. Although it’s also a real estate book, the principle of placing money in investments that contribute to monthly cash flow is another important principle in reducing the number of hours you “have to” work.
These are all great points Kirk. I will say much of this really depends upon your niche and/or business.
E-Myth is one of my cherished books BTW.
You can spend all the time in the world on a project for years, only to find out later it didn’t scale as you had initially hoped. That is the calculated risk we all take.
I’d venture to say the Real Estate industry daily tasks and strategies remain more or less the same (regardless of market conditions).
The online world on the other hand, seems to change weekly. The tactics you used 6 months ago, may not work today. Thus , you need to reinvest a lot of time again to tweak your systems once again.
Even though I spend time creating tutorial videos for outsourced help, the methods continuously change , for marketing tasks specifically.
Thanks for the honest thoughts Kirk.
I may have come off as sounding like I don’t think a passive income of working minimal hours is possible at all, but that is not my intention. I believe that it is possible to reach that level through automation, systems, and scale.
The point that I am making is that getting to a level where you can just sit back and watch your business churn on autopilot takes a lot of work and most people are afraid to put in the time to reach that level. I’m advocating that people put in the time if they want to make a big change in their life instead of thinking they are out of control.
I’ve read the 4HWW multiple times as well as the E-Myth and agree with you that the end goal is to work less while earning more.
Thanks again for such an insightful response Kirk. This is good discussion and I hope to hear from you again soon.
Those are some great thoughts, Kirk. As far as the goal of a four hour work week goes, it’s much closer to the mark. However I would take it a little further and say that, in regards to Tim Ferriss’ views, a four hour work week does not mean four hours of effort toward your business or endeavors. I think the point is that your goal should always be to find something that you can put a ton of effort into (even “overtime” in a sense) but doesn’t actually feel like work. Not possible for everyone. But if you prioritize your life and your business properly, I think that any task can shake off the feeling of being actual work.
Those four hours should be the obstacles you have to deal with before you can dive into your non-work efforts.
I know I read something similar on one of Corbett’s sites, in case that sounds familiar, but I totally subscribe to that view for myself. I make sincere efforts to do nothing that I hate unless it as absolutely necessary to move forward. Everything else becomes an enjoyable chunk of the process that should take up many long hours of your week! Just a different view, I guess.
Kirk,
Good points. I was going to mention that the 4HWW is ideally the goal once you get something up and running and outsource.
However to begin hard work must be put in. Gary Vaynerchuk has it dead on in this video http://www.viddler.com/v/e6e6922a. To remove yourself from the cubicle/9-5 world you must cut out the wasted time.
In my case I work a 40 hour office job which I don’t mind but it’s not what I want from life. For the last 7 months of 2011 I spent a fair bit of time getting a golf blog up and running. I didn’t put a lot of effort into blogging consistently and I didn’t have any programs to build passive income from.
Since then I have come across Think Traffic and Caleb’s blog here and I am working on starting a blog that matters on something I am just as passionate about. Have I put in a 100 work week yet? Not yet but I come from work and spend a good 4-6 hours getting stuff ready.
Once I cut out a few more of the wasteful areas of my life, I will be able to achieve that 100 work week in hopes of working a modest 20 work week.
“Once I cut out a few more of the wasteful areas of my life, I will be able to achieve that 100 work week in hopes of working a modest 20 work week.”
That is exactly what I was going for. Thanks for catching my drift Jordan.
Oh My God, I haven’t but I Have A Very Funny Idea That I will very soon. Since I started My Journalism Classes Last Thursday. This is A very Informative Post. Luv It. Wonderful, I’m just Starting to get My Blogs Off the Ground.
Thanks Jackie.
My friends in college that majored in journalism were always super busy too. Something about a lot of writing.
Your post inspired me to reflect on my own very long week this past week:
http://ditlod.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/an-almost-100-hour-workweek/
I’m self-employed so I’m not trying to balance a side-hustle with a full-time job, but I put in almost 80 hours this past week on my own business! I loved it, since I’m doing what I love and I’m in full control of what I do. But it was brutal, because I let the core fundamentals slip — diet, exercise, relationship time.
@Sarah Russell mentioned this above too — being sick for months, not being a pleasant person to be around, etc.
That’s no way to live!
But here’s the kicker — I actually want to have MORE 80-hour workweeks! Because that means I’m spending 80 hours working for myself, doing what I love. But in order to do that & sustain it, I’ve got to make sure I’ve got my priorities & systems lined up to support that, because the way I lived last week is definitely not sustainable for me.
No shortage of challenges here
That is awesome David. Thanks for sharing your post. I’m sure I won’t always feel this way, but I enjoy working long weeks almost as much as a zero hour workweek vacation.
I quiet agree with you Caleb.
I guess the best part i love is the part of increasing your time when you are doing something you love. Can you imagine its almost 3AM here in Nigeria and i am still doing what i love.
Sheyi
There is nothing quite like burning the midnight oil when you are working hard to achieve your dreams.
O to the M to Gee-golly. Yes, yes, yes.
What’s happened the idea of promoting hard work? What’s wrong with realizing that you have to put in the sweat to get the results? The flipside of the 4 Hour Pipe Dream is Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers that showed that the truly exceptional had put in over 10,000 hours perfecting their craft. Ask a pro-athlete if there’s an easy route to the big leagues? There’s not. And there’s not a quick path to success either. Work. That’ll get you there.
Nice post!!
Thanks Kathy.
I think the problem really lies in the trend towards looking for that “quick-fix” instead of putting in the work. People hear “overnight success” stories on the news and don’t realize how hard people worked to get to that point. Rovio, the company that made Angry Birds, failed 12 times before they created AB.
Sometimes I’m asked at my day job to do a stint of 3 months straight, no days off. Tis can be 80 hour weeks. It sucks. But then again it was work.
I’d do a 100 hours of something I love, though.
I agree John. 100 hours of anything in a single week can make a huge dent in what you are working towards. The key is to make the work you do something you love.
Hey Caleb,
I liked your post. It’s true. Working hard’s not so en vogue right now. I believe 100 hours may be pushing it. Once in a while. Go on then, but I wouldn’t be able to do 100 hours of work within a week anyway.
It’s funny reading your post now, because 2 weeks ago, I did calculate during the bank holiday weekend, starting with Monday, that by clawing back 2 hours every morning simply by waking up at 5, and by spending 3 hours in the evening of as many days as viably possible would get me 28 hours of work dedicated to doing and promoting my new trade.
That’s 7 hours short of an actual 9-to-5 workweek minus the lunch breaks, and even though I didn’t live up to my 5 o’clock starts, I got a huge amount of work done.
For every other week, I could get up to 21 hours. I think a lot of my work-week goes into commuting.
I think it takes a lot of discipline and preparation. A lot of time can be spent doing something, but it’s better to spend less time focused than spending loads of time just wasting time. Giving yourself a limit on the hours means you actually become more effective with your time.
Hey Caleb,
I worked as an IT at some major food chain corp. and I have to say I did work from 8:00am to 7:30pm from Monday to Friday. And then from 9:00am to 2:00pm every Saturday.
57.5 hours a week.
I maintained that schedule for almost two years but I hardly think I was being productive every single hour.
Now about a 100HWW, I think I have done those a lot of times since I started trying to work online but again, I don’t think I can even be productive for even 10 hours a day.
I’m not sure, I would have to do the experiment and measure my results but it’s definitely something that interests me.
Sergio
I agree that 100 hours/week is unsustainable, but for really important things sometimes you just gotta hustle.
Caleb,
I’ve never worked a hundred hours in a week that I tracked. Although, when I was working my 9-5 I was working about 32 hours/week (had a good salary) and would read and go to meetings after work. I would say I put in maybe 65-70 hours some weeks.
Don’t forget that this much time working is going to cost you - Tim Ferris said it cost him a girlfriend. Was it worth it? Only he can say.
I think next week I’m going to track my hours and put in 100 hours on SABTM/TS next week. That’s 100/7 = 14.29 hours per day. Let’s see how this plays out.
Thanks for the interesting post.
Will
Caleb,
I did 65 hours one week prelaunch! I did get a LOT done.
Man, 100 hours is challenging! Gonna try again!
Will
I’m living the 100 hour work week right now. I have 3 jobs: 9 to 5 day job, father to two awesome kids; and a side hustle. What’s interesting is how and where I spend time each day. Right now there’s 9-10 hours on the day job, 4-5 hours on the dad time, and 2-3 hours on the side hustle. (the other 10 hours is spent on personal fitness)
The goal is to eliminate the day job time and increase time on the side hustle (making it a full-time hustle) and increase dad time with my kids.
It’s tough. Realistically, the side hustle is the most important thing in my equation (because it will create the freedom I need to get to my goal) but I spend the least amount of time on it. Oh, the irony!
And with so little time spent on the side hustle each day, it’s hard to really focus on things and get a sense of true accomplishment when time spent on it is so small and fragmented.
It’s what I’m dealing with, but I’m not letting it strike me down. I need to keep pecking away until the side hustle breaks through and I feel comfortable making a change in where I spend my time.
Great post, Caleb. Really got me thinking…
I think the key is “passion”. If you can combine your “work” with your “life” then 100 hours is completely reasonable and even enjoyable because your work becomes something you are passionate about. In my life, I spend nearly every waking minute doing something work related (with the occasional date night with my wife, of course!) However, these are things I want to do. I mean, I would much rather spend my time building my blog or buying an apartment building than watching Desperate Housewives or Youtube videos, even though it is “work” instead of “relaxing”. Because it’s something I am passionate about, even 100 hours per week isn’t enough! Thanks Caleb for this post!
Of course I’ve put in 100 hour work-weeks…LOTS of them! I learned that I was capable of working 21 days straight w/o a day off…,but then was not productive on the 22nd day.
I was the sole female with the same position as 4 men. I was paid a little more than HALF of what each of the 4 men was paid. I had more education than any of them. I could see that I was good at my job so I decided that the only way I was going to receive a decent salary was by DOUBLING their (the 4 men) COMBINED daily production. At 6pm every evening, everyone went home. Not me…that’s when I sat down and began my paperwork (complicated legal contracts) for that day’s results. I would stay until 11pm-midnight.
As a result, I met my goal: for 2 years, every week…I doubled the COMBINED men’s results! This was a large Fortune 500 co and meanwhile… a woman across the country sued the company for discrimination and won!
The lawsuit scared the company and they went about finding a woman to promote.
With my extraordinary results, I received a HUGE promotion…skipping 2 steps…to regional sales mgr!!!! But here’s the important part: Because of my determination to produce outstanding results, I knew HOW to teach others to get outstanding results! There were 4 regional sales mgrs (the other 3 were men, of course and I was making 30% less than they.) When any of those men would visit an area, production would increase a little. Because I had worked EXTREMELY LONG & HARD previously, I was able to show improvements of over 1000% everywhere I went. Within a year, I was promoted to National Sales Mgr. Yes, with the extensive travel, I was still working 70-100 hrs per week.
But now I had a good salary and national position. There’s nothing special about me. I just worked hard and gave constant attention to my performance improvement. One can’t live a lifetime of 100 hr work-weeks…but 4-5 years of
sacrifice will probably bring results!
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