Sanity, Purpose and the 70-Hour Work-week

First, a story that I heard in my elementary school days. A hunter and his dog pursue a deer. The deer gets away. Frustrated, the hunter asks the dog how he, a trained hound, could lose to a mere deer. The dog says, ‘It wasn't an equal contest. The difference is motivation! I was running to make you happy. The deer was running to save her life!’

Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys, has stirred a hornet’s nest by suggesting that young people work 70 hours a week. Fierce criticism came from the work-life-balance advocates. Left leaning minds labeled that a statement by a capitalist trying to extract more work from his underlings. 

I agree that the optics aren’t good. The Indian IT industry, of which Infosys is a big part, is known to overwork its employees. But if you read further, Murthy seems to have said it in the context of making his country a powerhouse. He referenced Germany and Japan working hard to rebuild their respective nations after the second world war.

At the risk of being labeled the boomer uncle, let me provide my take: Young people should work long hours, and pick the right reason to work hard early in their careers.

Working Hard at a Young Age Builds Expertise

Malcolm Gladwell tells us the story of the Beatles in his book, ‘Outliers’. We think of the band as a collection of freakishly talented individuals. We attribute all their success to that talent. Gladwell, on the other hand, reckons that the unusually large number of hours that the band played together in the early ‘60s in the bars of Germany was the primary reason for their success. Those hours built uncommon expertise, a unique style, and team dynamics that served them well in the 70s. 

Gladwell founded the 10,000 hour theory. The theory says you need to practice for 10,000 hours before you can be an expert in any field. He explains how the Beatles got there early without being aware of it. He cites Bill Gates as another example. Gates secured access to a computer he could program with as a high schooler. He was driven by his interest to work long hours every day. Gladwell believes that gave Gates his 10,000 hours before Gates entered his professional life.

Young people, who have time on their side, should work hard early in their lives so their “10,000 hours” roll in sooner. It also gets harder with later stages of life.

Purpose Makes all the Difference

If you do the 70 hour weeks due to lack of planning in your workplace, you are wasting your precious youth.  You should consider changing jobs. But if you do that for something that you believe in, it makes it all worthwhile.

Now, a story on purpose. Vincent Van Gogh was considered a poor student of art. As a child, he spent an inordinate amount of time observing insects and labeling beetles. He apparently failed to learn from his celebrity art teacher at school. He moved to Paris when there was an explosion of art studios. However, he was not impressed by anything that he saw there. Now a young man, he tried working at an arts dealership, a bookstore, a school and a church. Frustrated by his lack of success in all these, he had been drawing as a distraction during those years. He tried various artistic pastimes, all of which met with unfavorable reviews. Many years and many experiments later, he came to the realization that he could paint, if he gave up the quest for perfect realism. One night, he watched the sky for hours and imagined the sky behind a tiny town with a chapel. The painting was The Starry Night. The rest, as they say, is history. Everything relating to art that Van Gogh did led him to that point.

The purpose was cricket for Tendulkar, tennis for Federer and mathematics for Ramanujan. If you think those examples are too cliched, consider the story of Padmasri Thimmakka, who considered planting trees and caring for them her mission. She did not do it for accolades, although national recognition was to come later.

For us common folks, this implies that we should work on a career that aligns with something worthwhile, even if we can’t see the immediate benefits.

It could be your passion, or just a cause that is bigger than yourself.  It’s up to you to decide what’s worthwhile. In my opinion, gaining billable hours for a services organization doesn’t qualify as a worthwhile cause. Nor does blogging 10,000 hours on the Big Boss season!

You Can (Must) Choose Whom to Work Hard For

Self employed people and entrepreneurs have less of a conflict, as it's clear whom they work for. For the employed folks, purpose alignment needs work.

Your first loyalty is to yourself. If you need to work for someone whose values don’t align with yours, you can choose to keep the relationship transactional, and devote your ‘expertise hours’ elsewhere. Clearly, it’s best when your work aligns with your passion, but we all have to make compromises to earn a livelihood. We all know folks who are more than competent in a pursuit outside their main careers. 

Whether you pursue an expertise in your workplace or outside, the key is to think like an owner. No one else owes you a career or interesting life. Employers need to balance between the customer interests, ownership interests and employee interests. It’s not reasonable to expect them to always make choices that help you pursue your passion. So you are clearly the boss when it comes to your interests.

Speaking of my own working career, there were two spells when I had to do unusually long hours to meet workplace demands. One was due to overcommitment by my employer. I, like many people who vent on social media these days, resented the situation, and justifiably blamed my employer for my stress. The second was due to a technical challenge that I had accepted on my own. I saw the solution at 6:30 AM on a Christmas morning. That success remains one of the fondest memories of my working career. No one, other than my passion, had forced me to do the hours I did. The difference between the two instances is who made the commitment that made me work those outrageous hours.

From the employers' point of view, they need a combination of steady contributors who work their predictable hours; and passionate people who want nothing short of world domination, and are willing to spend their energy towards the goal. It’s fair that the employer rewards the latter group disproportionately. In fact, it would be unfair if they didn't. 

Shoot the Good Messenger?

Now, coming back to Mr. Murthy, remember that he’s not asking for anything that he hasn’t done himself. His passion was building a company. I’m sure he made several sacrifices early in his career to position himself for success.

I’ve seen some folks who disagree with his statement snobbishly dismiss Infosys as a back office sweatshop. But it’s not clear what they’ve built that sufficiently qualifies them to dismiss Mr. Murthy’s achievements. 

When a self-made billionaire who has provided employment to hundreds of thousands speaks, I listen with a positive bias. I don't turn my nose up and insult the speaker.

Pic credit: CNN