My first startup was a success and pays me a hefty salary now.. For the first year I was working late into the night while I had a day job and it paid off. I d

My first startup was a success and pays me a hefty salary now.. For the first year I was working late into the night while I had a day job and it paid off. I didn't tell myself I need to work long hours to get this thing done - it just happened that way. It took me that long to get everything done and ready for release. The real debate going on here sounds something more like this: Camp Zen: Balance your life, family, and work and put it in perfect harmony. After all - my team and I developed Google in just 1 hour per day in 5 weeks. Either we have the right philosophy or you're just not smart enough to keep pace. Camp Starbucks: All else be damned. Stay up til 5am, get up at 6am to goto your paying job - then start working on the project again when you get back home at 5pm.. The project is the last thing on your mind before going to bed and the first thing on your mind when waking up.. Health failing? Not to worry - I'll be eating sushi and drinking green tea for the rest of life when I cash out at the end of all this.. I think Camp Zen likes to think they have the superior philo.. They like to point out that you shouldn't work just for the sake of work.. I completely agree.. However, if your idea and project are of any real value to society and have any chance going somewhere - then in most cases- you'll have plenty of work to do and plenty of health to exchange for that payoff later. The work is obviously cyclical in that sometimes you'll just happen to have a lot of downtime and other times you'll be wishing you were dead but in general you'll be putting your heart and soul into it..