I took paternity leave. I worked through most of it.
I do not fault anyone for grinding. I just stopped confusing it with progress.
I took paternity leave. I worked through most of it.
Lesson: Twelve days. I called it generous.
My first daughter was born during my second hyper-growth startup. My CEO pulled me aside and told me to take real time. Fellow executives said the same. I heard all of them, then did exactly what hustle culture had trained me to do. Twelve days, and I worked through most of them. My wife was recovering. My family was coming through to meet the baby. It was genuinely good. But my brain never slowed down. I am 45 now. I would take two months. Not for balance, not for some lesson. Just because it was worth it, and I could not see that yet.
Insight: Work ethic is not what the grind told you it was.
- Intensity is not the same as output. The operator who shows up with focused, consistent energy for a decade will outperform the one who runs hot for six months and burns out.
- A business built boring, built to service your life, is not a consolation prize. For most owners, it is the actual goal. It just takes a while to admit that.
- A dollar made doing almost nothing beats a hundred dollars made grinding, once you have the systems to make that possible. Getting to that point is the real work.
I do not fault anyone for grinding. I just stopped confusing it with progress.
Action Item: Audit what your hours are actually buying you.
- Write down the last time you were fully off for more than three days. No calls, no Slack, no checking in. If you cannot remember, that is your answer.
- List three things you are still doing personally that your business should have a system or a person for by now. Pick one and start building the handoff this week.
- Define what your business looks like in five years if it is working for you, not the other way around. Write it in two sentences. If you cannot, you are optimizing without a destination.
Also, Iwas featured as a guest on the podcast Be The Wolf, in the episode “#158 The Retirement Plan That Made Him Blow Up His Whole Life with Young Han”. Don’t miss it!
One more thing before you go.
The age of AI didn't kill storytelling. It made it the only thing worth investing in. When anyone can generate content, the organizations that win are the ones with a real narrative.
I'm a co-owner in Flipbird, a creative agency built for the people building things that matter. We treat story like a strategic problem, not a deliverable.
If that resonates, check us out: flipbird.co
