The secret weapon of 1am
And why working hard is incredibly underrated.
I am writing this Substack post at 1:15am Eastern Time, finishing a workday that started at 7:00am ET.
(disclaimer: I did take 2-3 hours off tonight, to take my wife on a date)
MY POINT IN SHARING THIS: without working into the night, this post would not be going up at the time you’re now reading it. It would still be on the to-do list as something that I “should do” that likely would be pushed to after the New Year.
Obviously, we can argue whether the 75 views or 2 follow-ups are worth this sacrifice. And maybe, in this specific case, they aren’t.
But…releasing this post is one of 10 key tasks that I’ve been able to check off just tonight, working from 10pm - 1am. Little hard to delegate “founder” things that collectively REALLY add up.
Of course, I think it’s important to average at least 6 hours of sleep a night.
Of course, family time should be treated as precious and prioritized.
And, of course, if you’re a follower of Jesus…I’d rather see you (and me) read our Bibles one hour a day than any amount of professional work.
BUT, THIS SAID: I think most start-up founders don’t work NEARLY hard enough.
If we’re REALLY committed…10am - 1am should be going to our ventures. Multiple nights a week.
We’ve forgotten as a society that “working hard” is the key to gaining experience.
And that experience is still (even in the age of AI) the key to “working smart.”
We’ve forgotten that history’s greats like Winston Churchill and Abe Lincoln worked tirelessly for their causes.
And we’ve forgotten that the best example for our kids, often, is sacrificing in a way that inspires them to sacrifice for their own dreams.
SO, GOING INTO THE NEW YEAR, ASK YOURSELF: “am I really leaving it all on the line? Or am I going through the motions?”
If you don’t like your answer, consider what it might look like to commit to outworking your competition…instead of just attempting to outsmart them.
Everyone is trying to do the latter. But it's easy to forget that the unsexy former is often the lowest-hanging fruit.