The Real Reason Founders Hate Balance

8 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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A founder argues that work-life balance is overrated. His most valuable years came during 16-17 hour days in military training, operational tours, and Arabic immersion, not from balanced living. He admits the intensity isn't sustainable but claims it's where real growth happens.

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There's a whole load of like wellness stuff at the moment and health and everyone's like dialing up on their sleep and like how they're having a balanced life. I just think this concept of balance is pretty well bullshit. If I look at my life, like the phases that I think I'll remember on my deathbed are the times where I've had no balance. It's when I've been utterly focused, it's when I've been burning the candle at both ends. And I've had it like, 'cause I'm obviously not like 20. Yeah, I think I was at a road to a reasonably high standard when I was at university. Like in the military, there are a few phases where I was just ridiculously focused on getting through a certain course and getting into a certain unit or on an operational tour, or when I did 6 months intense Arabic training. Those times I was just literally working 16, 17 hours a day. I had no time for any personal life and I was just utterly focused on achieving one goal. And unsustainable, but I can definitely— that's where I took real benefit from.