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I recently had a chat with a friend of mine. Let’s call him Jack.

Jack made his money in 10 years. He is living in financial freedom - living off the interest his capital is providing him.

He worked a high-income job and had zero work-life balance in his twenties. He would work from 6am to 11pm non-stop. He worked 70-80 hour weeks.

Sending his son to daycare and paying extra so he could pick him up at 7pm.

I asked him if I, at age 25 should bother to care about work-life balance.

He told me that I should.

This went against the advice I’ve been given for the last year, which was “work your butt off in your 20’s so you can enjoy life in your 30’s.”

The Millionaire by 30 Goal as I would call it.

I then asked him what he would do differently - he said he would do the same thing he did in 10 years but on a 20 year horizon.

He said he did made his money early, but his life is in a mess.

The last 10 years of “retirement” was misery for him. He is now 41.

All the money in the world couldn’t solve the love problems he had at home.

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Doubts I Had Plenty

When I heard this - a few things came to mind:

Should I take his advice? I’ve seen countless examples of people who succeed in their 30’s without giving a rat’s ass about work-life balance in their 20’s.

I did bring this up with him and he replied:

“From the outside, they look like they’re killing it. But if you really get to know them - they are more dysfunctional than you think.”

Then I thought:

Well, I’m currently working hard on my ambitions all the while leaving the office at 5pm because I rather be at home for the rest of the day. My colleagues have suggested that it does signal that I’m not as dedicated as the rest of the team.

I personally feel that the mere act of thinking and practicing work-life balance (especially this early in my mid twenties) is handicapping my success.

I didn’t have to ask Jack to know the answer.

I did however made a remark which went:

“I guess when people say there’s no rush to reaching success, they weren’t kidding.”

To which he replied:

“Yup, Ben. I can safely say that there was no rush to getting there.”

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How Many Hours Should I Work a Week Then?

Ever since my conversation with Jack - I couldn’t help but think how to structure my life.

I did tell him that my plan was to work 60 hour weeks (12 hours 5 days a week).

He said I would burn out.

Instead, he suggested 50 hours - you work 1-2 hours overtime than the others.

Now that I think about it - 10 hours a day of focused work is a LOT OF time to create a lot of QUALITY work and income.

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But Ben, if I take it slow, I will be left in the dust by my other ambitious friends.

True. But before I continue, have you ever heard of the WHY exercise?

It’s super simple.

Just ask yourself why you are doing the things you are doing - health wise, money wise and relationship wise, until you get to the core of why it is you do it.

For me, I asked myself WHY I wanted to be rich (which is my single biggest goal now).

The exercise led to: “So I can spend time with my loved ones.”

Then I asked myself WHY do I want to travel so much.

The exercise led to: “Life is short. Have an adventure.”

Doing these deceptive simple exercises can lead you to great answers and reminders.

What can I do with these answers?

Practice them right away.

To be honest, I don’t need to be a millionaire to spend time with loved ones - I can spend RM300 for a plane ticket every quarter to see my family back home.

I can find remote work and work from home. Spending nearly all day with my fiancee at home. Or do freelance work.

What about having adventures?

Sure, I can’t fly to Japan for RM300. But what I can do is take a bus ride and experience the rest of KL or the rest of West Malaysia. Pulau Redang, Langkawi, etc.

Stuff that the typical office worker can afford.

If you wish to enjoy more expensive things, trade up the value chain lar (more on that later).

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The reason I ask you to take this exercise is because A LOT OF people get lost trying to chase money without really knowing why.

Status, fame and fortune usually comes to mind. Some think happiness will come.

But if you know your REAL why. You can work towards your goals AND enjoy yourself at the same time where you are already.

It plays in tandem with the mantra: “Time past is time gone forever. Enjoy it.”

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How long is the journey?

I’ve heard many entrepreneur interviews citing 3 years, 5 years and 7 years it took them to “make it”.

But I would say the safest bet is 10 years.

Naval Ravikant, founder of Angelist said 10 years is the minimum it takes to get good at anything (see 10,000 hour rule) or to build a real business.

In the media industry, works that are considered to be timeless have to last and be culturally relevant for at least 10 years - be it songs, books or movies.

If you knew the journey would take you 10 years, how would you play your cards?

Would you sleep 6 hours a night? Or work 12 hours a day? Ignoring your family all the while?

Chances are you wouldn’t.

You would sleep 8 hours a night, figure out what’s the most number of hours you can perform your best at (maximizing your strengths each day), and spend time with your family whenever possible.

Sure you can say to yourself that working 12 hours a day is temporary and glory is forever.

But again - it’s back to the mantra of “Time past is time gone forever. Enjoy yourself no matter what it is.”

Knowing the journey would take 10 years adds a critical ingredient in your arsenal that many 20 somethings lack - patience.

Ask gym trainers what questions do most guys ask them about bodybuilding.

Chances are it’s “how fast can I get buff?”

On another note, look around you and see how many people quit pursuing certain businesses and skills because it took “too long” or it was “too hard.”

Thinking long term has ALWAYS proven to be a good strategy in life, because thinking the opposite - short term - leads to short-term behaviour which leads to short-term decisions (and we all know how short term decisions affect our lives in the long run.)

By the way, I say journey because to quote a cliche:

“It's about the journey, not the destination.”

Destinations last moments and journeys last decades.

Postponing decades of enjoyment for just a few moments is borderline stupid and foolish. That’s why a lot of people aren’t very happy even though they “made it”.

They would have been a lot happier if they enjoyed the ride.

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So if I have to wait 10 years AND cut back on hustling, what should I do?

I was thinking the same thing.

There was a thought experiment on what would you do if your income was capped at just RM5000 a month.

This thought experiment forces you to optimize for two things - work hours per week and the type of work you would be doing (to maximize enjoyability).

Back to the notion of cutting back on hustling, the question I had was:

“How to make maximum money in minimum time?”

From what I’ve learned, there are usually 3 ways to do that:

1. High-income skills
2. Scalable businesses
3. High return investments

What I’m doing now is learning high-income skills

Let’s face it - there are certain skills that can fetch a fatter cheque than others.

Packing boxes and driving Grab can only take you so far when you calculate the amount you can make per unit of time.

And not all skills are created equal either.

Some are high paying, doesn’t require certification nor experience nor capital, plus its location independent (meaning you do it wherever).

From my experience, the most in-vogue high-income skill now is digital marketing. It is nowhere nearly as intimidating as coding as it pays more than your standard freelance writing.

As you get better with your high-income skill, naturally more and more people would pay you higher and higher for your services.

As you get better, you learn do more in less time.

You could start off being paid just RM20 per hour but as your results get better and better, you can command RM100 per hour or more.

According to my friend Jack, his approach was different. He suggests being multi-skilled and being able to do many roles as a single person. Hiring you = hiring 5 people.

Being multi-skilled and developing your talent stack is also another way of developing your high-income skills as you can do the jobs of multiple departments.

What scalable business can I start

My definition of a business is one that can run without you.

You have set up the automation and processes right so most your time is spent on strategy, administration and marketing.

The most in-vogue scalable business models now are info-products and dropshipping.

Info-products are courses, ebooks and coaching you can provide based on your expertise.

Dropshipping is the act of creating your online store, having your product shipped directly from the manufacturer to the consumer without you holding any sort of inventory.

I won’t go deep into any of these business models because there are other sites that do a better job.

And finally, high return investments

The scalable business route is not necessary as many people have made their money just developing their high-income skills and investing the money they kept in high return investments.

When I say “high return”, I’m not implying any pyramid schemes here.

Things as simple as ETFs, bonds, rental properties, stocks can act as strong investment vehicles that can return up to 10% or more per annum. Those are the basics.

If you have access to the startup space or just great business friends, angel investing is another way to get high returns when the startup gets acquired or goes for IPO.

Compounded over time, it can lead to a lot.

If you trade crypto, you know you can double your money in a matter of weeks but even billionaires like Chamath Palihapitiya suggests you put no more than 1-5% of your net worth into cryptocurrencies as it’s extremely volatile and speculative.

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So what’s the plan?

Right now, I’m thinking about it this way:

What is the ideal amount of hours I’d be willing to do every day (including weekends and holidays) for the rest of my life?

As of now in my 20’s, my answer would be the 8/8/8 rule.

8 hours of sleep.

8 hours of work.

8 hours of life.

Now you’re thinking - wait Ben, isn’t this the 9-to-5 schedule?

It sure is. And I don’t see anything wrong with it as long as you know what you are doing and why you are doing it. Did I mention it’s a schedule I’m willing to do on weekends and holidays if needed?

Let me break it down:

8 hours of sleep - self explanatory.

8 hours of work - as you build your high-income skills, each hour is worth more. From RM20 to RM100++ (this includes checking your investments and building your scalable business btw). SPRINT time.

8 hours of life - includes health, relationships, play, learning, developing skills, and chores.

This is the schedule I’m sticking to for now as I think it provides enough time to build the future (work, life) and to enjoy the present (life, work) at the same time.

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Question of the day:

Do you think 20 somethings should care about work-life balance?