One of my most reviled posts is called, Do People Really Only Work 40 Hours A Week Or Less And Complain Why They Can’t Get Ahead? The post paints me as an unsympathetic person full of tough love. “Thank you sir! May I have another!”
I wrote the post back in 2011 when I was burning out from working in finance. Every week was a ~60-hour grind of doing the same thing I had been doing since 2009. Whenever I heard someone complain on the bus or online about their single-digit-hour workday, it irked me.
Oh, how I wished for a 9 AM to 5 PM workday. Instead, I was always expected to get in by 6:30 AM and stay connected until 9 PM because I needed to correspond with my colleagues in New York and Asia who were in different time zones.
Wanting to go straight to the corner office without putting in the work is human nature. As an old man now, I empathize with those of you who want six-pack abs while eating donuts every day. Sign me up! Nevertheless, I encourage you to act more rationally if you want to get ahead.
There are extremely smart people out there who are also working extremely hard at their goals. If you’re of average intelligence, as I am, it’s very difficult to be successful by working normal hours.