Hard work is for losers

Yesterday was my last day at Sefaira. Over 5 years of building a business, I’ve learnt many things about myself. Specifically, I learnt how I view work differs from how others view work. This post is about those views. Depending on your perspective, you might agree with some of what I say but mostly, I hope it makes you look at your work a little differently

If its broken, its your problem

This is a popular slogan but very few have the conviction to live by it. Trying to live by this requires that as an individual, you go outside your organizational boundaries. It requires that you question how things are being done, and it requires that you make yourself & your team a little uncomfortable. I knew that if I didn’t live by this, our team would rapidly become ineffective. A good way to tell if this is happening is when you start to hear “What can I do about it?” used to denote exasperation. It’s important this question be flipped into an opportunity to think about a solution.

Don’t ask for permission

If you are immersed in your work, and think of an idea that can improve our impact, just go ahead & do it. If you are asking for permission, it either stems from your lack of conviction in the idea (in which case you should discuss your idea with people who can help you validate it), or worse – your lack of belief in the culture around you.

Hard work is for losers

Don’t fall into the “I’m busting my ass” or “my team is busting its ass” trap. Customers won’t write checks because your team is busting ass. Users don’t use your product because your developers work 8 or 10 hours a day. Customers write checks when they get value, and value is built by solving problems. By extension, solving important problems, the ones that build value, requires a lot of hard work. In fact, I was notorious for starting relatively early, and I stayed till late. But I was very aware that the hours didn’t matter – it’s the output outcomes that mattered. This is why I caution against “hard work” as an ethos. In of itself, it simply doesn’t matter. If it achieves a desired goal, it’s that achievement that matters.

9 to 5 is a trap

By the same token, I think 9-to-5 is a trap. 9 to 5 is when many people think they need to show up and work. However, a lot of the real thinking about important problems happens when you are truly immersed in those problems and thinking about them all the time. For me it happened when I went running in the mornings, or when I went to bed, or on the subway ride. It happened when I would show up for work at 6:30 in the morning, and sit in a dark office listening to music & staring out of the window. It happened when I would get dinner or drinks with my colleagues, and discuss those problems – the problems I didn’t get a chance to discuss because I was ‘working’. The irony is that I could never work 8 hours straight. My day was filled with breaks. In fact, it’d be fair to say that I worked in 4 hour shifts followed by an hour or so of break, and then I slept for 7-8 hours.

Work-life balance is misguided

Extending this further, I think discussions of work-life balance are misguided as well. Work-life balance is often counted in number of hours as opposed to quality of hours. I felt that my life was most fulfilling when I was successfully solving important problems. A glass of wine after ‘work’ tasted a 1000x better when I had worked non stop for days, and made headway on an important problem, than after working 8 hours a day on less important problems. Stop telling yourself that you are doing a good job because you show up and 9am, and put your head down and work hard till 5pm. Your life is not balanced till you are solving important problems.

There are many ways to skin a cat

Smart people are very good at observing events unfold, and forming patterns. These patterns help them in making decisions efficiently, and give them the ability to act in a timely manner. As they succeed, these patterns become guiding principles. The irony here is that one stops observing and forming new patterns as guiding principles firm up, when it is clear that observation resulted in those guiding principles. As a result, you get ‘stuck’ in your ways, and think you are ‘right’.

Instead, focus on outcomes and discuss / debate them. Based on those outcomes, outline approaches, and then try ones that people have most conviction in, not the ones most people have mild enthusiasm about. Evaluate the approach based on outcomes, and know that at times, approaches that failed on one problem can work on another. Constantly trying new & old ways to solve problems leads to an enriched view of the world around us, and helps create stronger guiding principles.

In summary, the best way to have an impact at work is by doing things you find uncomfortable, and by breaking patterns that people have created & adopted. We need to continue to question our views on work to get better.