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I think we're all rooting for the narrative that it's possible to get ahead working 9-5. But it's hard for me to ignore the survivorship bias at play here. Yes,

I think we're all rooting for the narrative that it's possible to get ahead working 9-5. But it's hard for me to ignore the survivorship bias at play here. Yes, if your company has a market cap in the billions, you probably don't need to be grinding on the weekends anymore. If you've built a company with amazing programmers and predictable revenue (e.g., dhh/Jason Fried) you probably don't need to grind weekends. But when you're at the front lines, striving to create something new, you'll be competing against very motivated entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs will often have more resources than you, and zero aversion to working weekends. In those circumstances, Tobi's lifestyle probably isn't going to cut it. When an entrepreneur is working to create that spark, it pays to be completely obsessed, sometimes for years. Thankfully, very few of us are on the front lines struggling to launch something momentous. Tobi once was, but he was smart and surrounded by great people, and now he's in scaling mode, which seems like a much different beast. I'm grateful that he and other successful tech leaders don't force their teams to work as hard as they needed to in the early days.

achow 7y ago
I've never worked through a night. The only times I worked more than 40 hours in a week was when I had the burning desire to do so. ...never...
zorpner 7y ago
> But it's hard for me to ignore the survivorship bias at play here. Surely it works the other way as well -- for all the stories of people who worked all night to achieve success, there are others about people who either did so and didn't win, or worse yet burnt themselves out or hurt their lives in other ways.
- k__ 7y ago
  This. Everyone thinks their experience reflects an universal truth. That's the one big error, in my opinion. What I learned in my life is, find your individual way. Don't play other peoples games, play your own game. Pick what you need from the system and throw the rest away. I'm bad at standing up before 12 and even worse at working 40h a week. I'm don't like doing the same stuff for years. I'm bad at networking for work, most people I meet there are just boring or upsetting to me. All these things set me up for failure, still I'm doing better than most of my friends who are better at these things by a mile.
themagician 7y ago
I think his point was more about focus. If you know what you’re doing, you can do it on any (reasonable) timeline you want. Most entrepreneurs are just chasing money like a Leprechaun. Wherever it goes, you follow. Run, turn, grind, pivot. Shopify has always been really focused. Moves slower than the competition in many ways. They’ve been at it for 15 years. Mostly behind the scenes, not the sexiest stuff. When you have a simple business you don’t have to grind weekends to try and convince someone to give you more money. The business is self sustaining and profitable.

achow 7y ago

I've never worked through a night. The only times I worked more than 40 hours in a week was when I had the burning desire to do so. ...never...

zorpner 7y ago

> But it's hard for me to ignore the survivorship bias at play here. Surely it works the other way as well -- for all the stories of people who worked all night to achieve success, there are others about people who either did so and didn't win, or worse yet burnt themselves out or hurt their lives in other ways.

k__ 7y ago
This. Everyone thinks their experience reflects an universal truth. That's the one big error, in my opinion. What I learned in my life is, find your individual way. Don't play other peoples games, play your own game. Pick what you need from the system and throw the rest away. I'm bad at standing up before 12 and even worse at working 40h a week. I'm don't like doing the same stuff for years. I'm bad at networking for work, most people I meet there are just boring or upsetting to me. All these things set me up for failure, still I'm doing better than most of my friends who are better at these things by a mile.

themagician 7y ago

I think his point was more about focus. If you know what you’re doing, you can do it on any (reasonable) timeline you want. Most entrepreneurs are just chasing money like a Leprechaun. Wherever it goes, you follow. Run, turn, grind, pivot. Shopify has always been really focused. Moves slower than the competition in many ways. They’ve been at it for 15 years. Mostly behind the scenes, not the sexiest stuff. When you have a simple business you don’t have to grind weekends to try and convince someone to give you more money. The business is self sustaining and profitable.