Forget 126, 90, or even 70 hours. These days, my only ambition is to consistently hit 40 focused hours a week — like I could early in my career. Don't get me wrong; I spend many more hours at work, but my ability to be focused for long hours has diminished over the years.
If I have got the chronology right, first came Shantanu Deshpande. Then Narayan Murthy. Finally, S.N. Subrahmanyan. Each of them had something to say about working long hours.
Mr. Deshpande, Founder and CEO of Bombay Shaving Company, suggested that freshers should work 18 hours a day, seven days a week i.e. ~126 hours/week, for the first 4-5 years of their career to set themselves up for future success.
Mr. Murthy, one of the founders of Infosys and a doyen of the Indian IT industry, opined that young Indians should work 70 hours a week if India wants to achieve its goal of becoming a developed country.
Finally, Mr. Subrahmanyan, Chairman at Larsen & Toubro (L&T), suggested employees should put in 90 hours a week, including Sundays.
Their comments triggered intense backlash. Everyone — and their mother — had an opinion. Most of the comments were against the suggestions and painted them as villains — the new faces of elite privilege.
I think most of us missed the forest for the trees. In my opinion, each one of the CEOs was trying to communicate that one needs to work really hard to see brilliant outcomes. There is no other secret sauce.
This matches my experience — and what I’ve seen from reading biographies of successful people. The common theme among insanely successful people is that they have an insane work ethic and they work long hours.
Let’s set aside the insanely successful entrepreneur, politician, actor, and sports star for a moment. Even the moderately successful among us — the ones who get promoted and stay ahead of their peers — tend to have a solid work ethic and put in focused hours.
Before I share my take on how to think about the hours one spends at work, let's define being successful as being ahead of your peers (similar in age, qualification, and work experience).
With this definition of success in mind, I present my (non-proprietary) X-8-Y Model to calculate weekly hours for Career Growth:
- X hours a day to learn the knowledge and skills required for your current role.
- 8 hours a day of focused, high-quality work to deliver on your current responsibilities and earn your salary.
- Y hours a day to develop the knowledge and skills needed for your next role — the one you aspire to move into.
The specific value of X and Y will vary by person and situation, but the underlying idea remains the same: To consistently move ahead of your peers, you must earn today’s paycheck while investing in tomorrow’s opportunities.
Breaking it down further:
- X = hours to learn knowledge/skills for your current job: In India, companies are often forced to invest in training because employees don't pick up the knowledge and skills they need to do the kinds of jobs they are hired for. In addition to technical skills, many of us do poorly when it comes to a variety of soft skills. While the companies can train you, I strongly believe each one of us should be responsible for this. Since we cannot undo our school and university days, this is going to take more than a few hours. When you don't have the required knowledge and skills, you will take much longer to finish your job. For example, when I started my career, many programmers didn't know how to type using a QWERTY keyboard. You may think it's not a big deal. Imagine the difference in productivity of programmers on the basis of typing speed — a programmer who can look at the screen and type with ten fingers, will output far more lines of code than a programmer that has to look at the keyboard and type one keystroke at a time. There are so many such skills that if you want to stand out, you will need to tackle them one by one.
- 8 = hours to earn your salary through focused work: 8 because that's the standard expectation around the world. I used to routinely take the company-provided taxi service back home at 1 or 2 am when I started my career as a programmer. Soon, I questioned my work hours — and the truth stared me in the face. I was not working late; I was staying late. I was at the office but unproductive for many hours. My days started slow and were filled with long tea and meal breaks with colleagues. It took work, but within 30 days, I started leaving work at 6 pm after completing the day's tasks. My productivity was through the roof. I should admit two consequences — I was genuinely exhausted by the time I got home, and it took me another couple of months to really get used to this level of intense productivity. Secondly, my bosses started giving me more work because they assumed that I was finishing early because I didn't have much work (That's a story for another day!)
- Y = hours to learn knowledge/skills for the next role: Most employees want a promotion but don't put in the hours to earn it. In my opinion, you get a promotion once you prove that you have the knowledge and skills to deliver in your new role. This also takes time.
Whether you are starting your career, or an experienced employee, or a founder, the basic formula stays the same — but the load gets heavier as you climb higher.
As a founder, this challenge multiplies. You're responsible for so many functions that the need to learn for your current responsibilities and future growth becomes even more urgent — and overwhelming. I find the hours to learn what I need for my current and next level as CEO — but I fail miserably at putting in 8 focused hours of real work. I probably manage three on most days, and might get five hours on a lucky day.
Now you get it; forget 126 hours; I will celebrate once I am able to put in 40 hours of focused work in a week. This made me remember another secret — there is a sweet joy in putting in focused hours. Being in the flow state is its own reward. It's like the runner's high. A type of internal reward for time well spent. The good news is: once you experience the joy of deep, focused work, you’ll chase the feeling — not just the hours. And that changes everything.
Forget the clock. Chase the craft. That’s where the real magic happens.