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The most (professionally) successful persons I know worked very hard at least at some point in their life. For instance, I know tons of professors that pretty m

The most (professionally) successful persons I know worked very hard at least at some point in their life. For instance, I know tons of professors that pretty much work all the time. Same thing with former schoolmates working in finance now. I'm not saying it's the road to follow, and obviously, not all careers are comparable, but I think that in order to reach their full potential, people have to (and can) work a lot.

Noseshine 10y ago
Just a few days ago I read an article or blog entry - which I may even have found through a comment on HN? - where a successful important person described the reunions with the people he had studied with over 20 years. At first everybody was so amazingly successful, great wife, then great kids, all doing very well, financially too. But after 10 years with each reunion less and less people showed up. Those who were missing had no wife and family left and didn't want their old pals to know how their personal lives had faltered. You only mention careers...? Please report overall long-term life success that includes the family :) Also, since you mention finance, while they personally benefited, and their industry did too, what about the rest of society? Does the latest microsecond computer trading algorithm really benefit mankind overall? So to summarize, the questions I have are about 1) individual success not just "career", "financial" and "short term", and 2) that individual success from the perspective of society.
- yodsanklai 10y ago
  As I said, I didn't want to mean that everybody should work hard or that professional success is the only important thing. But I think that in order to succeed in a competitive field, one has too work hard and it's definitely doable. That being said, I'm an advocate of less working hours and more vacation. I worked in the US for a couple of years, and this is the one thing that made me go back to Europe. Free time is the most important thing in my opinion.
  - rdm42116 10y ago
    But how do you define "success?"
  - projektir 10y ago
    I wonder if that just selects for people who can work longer without losing productivity / sanity. That doesn't strike me as normal.
- pcunite 10y ago
  Please report overall long-term life success that includes the family :) Exactly, personal "gold rush" journeys look good on a blog, Wikipedia article, or TechCrunch post, but what are these people like in the flesh? Three marriages, children who don't know their fathers ... but hey, they "made" it, right?
itamarst 10y ago
I think you're conflating working hard with working long hours. Truly difficult intellectual work requires a lot of downtime, thinking at the back of your head while you're doing other things. If you talk to a professor and ask them about productive intellectual work they'll tell you they don't have as much time for that as they'd like, because they're busy writing grant proposals :)

Noseshine 10y ago

Just a few days ago I read an article or blog entry - which I may even have found through a comment on HN? - where a successful important person described the reunions with the people he had studied with over 20 years. At first everybody was so amazingly successful, great wife, then great kids, all doing very well, financially too. But after 10 years with each reunion less and less people showed up. Those who were missing had no wife and family left and didn't want their old pals to know how their personal lives had faltered. You only mention careers...? Please report overall long-term life success that includes the family :) Also, since you mention finance, while they personally benefited, and their industry did too, what about the rest of society? Does the latest microsecond computer trading algorithm really benefit mankind overall? So to summarize, the questions I have are about 1) individual success not just "career", "financial" and "short term", and 2) that individual success from the perspective of society.

yodsanklai 10y ago
As I said, I didn't want to mean that everybody should work hard or that professional success is the only important thing. But I think that in order to succeed in a competitive field, one has too work hard and it's definitely doable. That being said, I'm an advocate of less working hours and more vacation. I worked in the US for a couple of years, and this is the one thing that made me go back to Europe. Free time is the most important thing in my opinion.
- rdm42116 10y ago
  But how do you define "success?"
- projektir 10y ago
  I wonder if that just selects for people who can work longer without losing productivity / sanity. That doesn't strike me as normal.
pcunite 10y ago
Please report overall long-term life success that includes the family :) Exactly, personal "gold rush" journeys look good on a blog, Wikipedia article, or TechCrunch post, but what are these people like in the flesh? Three marriages, children who don't know their fathers ... but hey, they "made" it, right?

itamarst 10y ago

I think you're conflating working hard with working long hours. Truly difficult intellectual work requires a lot of downtime, thinking at the back of your head while you're doing other things. If you talk to a professor and ask them about productive intellectual work they'll tell you they don't have as much time for that as they'd like, because they're busy writing grant proposals :)