{"id":1923,"date":"2013-04-07T10:41:08","date_gmt":"2013-04-07T17:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/?p=1923"},"modified":"2018-01-28T13:54:55","modified_gmt":"2018-01-28T18:54:55","slug":"bad-advice-stop-working-so-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/bad-advice-stop-working-so-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Advice: “Stop Working So Hard”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been seeing quite a few posts on Hacker News<\/a> lately about why you should not work too hard and even saying you should work less than 35 hours a week.<\/a>\\n\\n(Now, don\u2019t get me wrong.\u00a0 I think the authors of these articles are awesome people who have accomplished huge things.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean to disrespect anyone of these great entrepreneurs.\u00a0 I just think some of them have confused where they are now, with how they got there.)<\/em>\\n\\nWould we ever want to live in a world where working harder didn\u2019t amount to anything more, but rather ended up returning you less?<\/strong>\\n\\nI know plenty of people who work less than 35 hours a week, and I wouldn\u2019t say they are doing the best work of their life.\\n\\n\"Homeless<\/a>\\n\\nIn contrast, I know plenty of people who are working 50 to 60 hours per week and they are doing some amazing things.\\n\\n<\/p>\n

You have to work hard now to reap the benefits later<\/h2>\n

\\n\\nAt the beginning of every episode of Pat Flynn\u2019s<\/a> podcast he says\\n\\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to the smart passive income podcast where it\u2019s all about working hard now so you can sit back and reap the benefits later.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\\n\\nThere is no way around this.\u00a0 It is the principal of sowing and reaping<\/a> at work.\\n\\nWhile many well intentioned bloggers have urged you to not put in those extra hours at night, but rather to take time to do what you want and live a life outside of your work, they have forgotten the very path they took to get to where they are today.<\/strong>\\n\\nIf you are in that season of your life, then please take their advice.\u00a0 They are 100% right.\u00a0 There is this point of diminishing returns where you don\u2019t gain much more benefit by spinning the wheel harder.<\/strong>\\n\\nEver rode a bike down hill really fast?\\n\\n\"bikedown\"<\/a>\\n\\nYou know how at first you can start pedaling and it will actually make you go down the hill faster, but at some point the pedals just start spinning themselves?\\n\\nYou reach that point where you can\u2019t actually move your legs fast enough to make much of a difference.\u00a0 Every couple of seconds, your foot will hit that tiny bit of resistance which tells you that you actually did something, but most of the time you are just spinning your loose pedals, not actually adding any speed.\\n\\nIt\u2019s a pretty good feeling zooming down that hill with minimal effort on your part.\u00a0 There is no need to pedal furiously like you did to get up the hill.\u00a0 If you are pedaling furiously at that point, not only are you wasting your effort, but you are missing out on taking time to enjoy the best part of the ride.\\n\\n<\/p>\n

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You have to climb the hill before you can sail down it<\/h2>\n

\\n\\nWhen riding a bicycle, there is only one way to reach a point where you can sail down a hill effortlessly\u2014you have to climb up a hill first.\"bikeup\"<\/a>\\n\\nAltitude change down, requires previous altitude change up.\u00a0 No way around it.<\/strong>\\n\\nPedaling a bike up a hill is hard work.\\n\\nNot only do you have to keep working to move the bike up the hill, but every time you stop pedaling, you run the risk of rolling backwards.\\n\\nThe faster you want to get up the hill, the harder you have to pedal and the more you risk tiring out and rolling down the hill.\\n\\nThere is no rest, there are no breaks when pedaling up the hill.\u00a0 The best you can do is get off the bike for a while and walk it up the hill, but that will surely slow you down.\\n\\nAnd so it is with life in general.\\n\\n<\/p>\n

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My personal hill<\/h2>\n

\\n\\nI\u2019d like to buy into the story that we can just take it easy and good things will come, but the reality of the situation is that you\u2019ve got to put in work first\u2014hard work.\\n\\nI started buying real estate when I was 18 years old.\u00a0 I bought my first house, which is a rental I still have today.\\n\\nSince then, I\u2019ve been buying properties at a rate of about 1 every couple of years.\\n\\nIt hasn\u2019t been easy.\u00a0 Huge sacrifices to be able to do it, but from when I started I knew that I was pedaling my bike up the hill.\\n\\nI also had been working as a developer full time for about the past 15 years.\u00a0 During that time, I was working nights and weekends to handle my real estate, building apps, and most recently creating online courses for Pluralsight<\/a>.\\n\\nOnly at the beginning of this year was I able to finally quit my regular job working for someone else<\/a> and start working completely for myself.\\n\\nIt took a lot of extra hours on nights and weekends, week after week for over 2 years to get there.<\/strong>\\n\\nJust within the last year have all the real estate investments that I have been making for the last 15 years started to actually put some money in my pocket.\\n\\nI\u2019m still at the point where I am working 60 hour weeks just about every week.\u00a0 I am still climbing up the hill.\\n\\nBut, the good news is I can see the crest and I know that if I keep pushing down on those pedals, I\u2019ll reach the peak from where I can coast down.\\n\\n<\/p>\n

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My advice<\/h2>\n

\\n\\nDon\u2019t buy into the idea that there is someway to get around hard work.\\n\\nStop running away from hard work and start embracing it.\u00a0 I\u2019ve learned from experience that it takes much more effort overall to avoid hard work than it does to do it, and avoiding hard work engenders no benefits long term or short.\\n\\nMake the right sacrifices.<\/strong>\\n\\nDon\u2019t sacrifice your marriage or family in order to get ahead.\u00a0 In the end, it will put you behind.\u00a0 Remember, there is no more costly pursuit than divorce.\\n\\nMake time to be with your spouse, set aside time to play with the kids every day, if you have them.\u00a0 Take a day off to have a family day.\\n\\nInstead, sacrifice from this list:\\n\\n<\/p>\n