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Showdown Day 3: Fred Gratzon

by Bren on March 24th, 2005

Welcome to the third and final day of the Productivity Blog
Showdown. Before we begin, I’d like to thank Fred and Steve for their
willingness to participate in the Showdown, and for the good humor
while doing so. No matter which way you swing, productively speaking,
you’ve got to admit these are a couple of quality guys. Onward, then.

Today’s questions are as follows:

Working hard and setting limits…
a.    Can a person work a maximum of 40 hours a week at something and still be successful?
b.
  Real-life story problem #1: I’ve recently graduated from university
and launched into full time work with the company I have been working
part time with for the last 3 years. I love working there and I get
paid on an hourly rate so that the more hours I work, the more money I
get.  I like the idea of working 40 hour weeks or less, so that I have
more time to do my own things, but my boss is encouraging me to treat
those 40 hours as a minimum! Consequently, I find myself surrounded by
workers that work 60+ hours a week and myself working 50 hours a week
or more. So I guess I’m torn between working a 40 hour week and having
more time to focus on other things in my life or working 50+ hours a
week and getting the extra money and industry experience. So should I
work more hours or less? Why? What other factors should I consider?
c.
  Real-life story problem #2: Extreme programming is a set of
rules/mindsets/methods for programming. On the one hand, several of
those methods aim at keeping you as hard working and productive as
possible. On the other hand, the official "rules" almost forbid you to
work more than 40 hours per week. So working as hard as you can for 8
hours, 5 days a week, but not more. This ‘d be a nice statement to
react upon for both of them.
d.    Is a day’s work it’s own reward,
or is there a way to change your perspective regarding mind-numbing
work so that it becomes fun?

Fred Gratzon is the author of The Lazy Way to Success, and also keeps a blog over here.
He has also founded two very different companies, an ice cream
manufacturing company and a long distance company–more info about that
in this interview.
His unique point of view is delivered from a comfortable perch within a
hammock–ostensibly somewhere near palm trees, but I think it’s
actually nearer to Iowa, USA. So, without further commentary, here is Fred’s response…

a.    Can a person work a maximum of 40 hours a week at something and still be successful?

Success is not determined by how much time you spend. It is not about work. A great idea can be worth more than a billion hours of work and a great idea comes effortlessly, as do all thoughts.

But if you insist on talking about time, in the businesses I started, I hardly ever put in an 8 hour day, plus I rarely stayed late or came back at night. Generally speaking, I’d show up around 10 AM. At noon I’d go home and spend an hour or so eating lunch with my family. In the afternoon, I’d go home around 4:30. Since I don’t have any business skills like finance, or legal, or technical, or managerial, or clerical, or anything, I attracted exceedingly competent people and let them do the whole thing. I’d just cruise, schmooze and yuk it up all day.

(One important insight regarding hiring: a first rate person hires other first rate people. A second rate person hires third rate people. If you want your organization to degrade quickly, hire less than first rate people.)

I am all about finding ways of accomplishing more by doing less. I believe those creative insights and discoveries come more frequently when you are rested, happy, relaxed, and healthy. I therefore think that caring for your inner equipment is more vital to your success than spending hours straining away and generating fatigue and stress.

b.    Real-life story problem #1: I’ve recently graduated from university and launched into full time work with the company I have been working part time with for the last 3 years. I love working there and I get paid on an hourly rate so that the more hours I work, the more money I get.  I like the idea of working 40 hour weeks or less, so that I have more time to do my own things, but my boss is encouraging me to treat those 40 hours as a minimum! Consequently, I find myself surrounded by workers that work 60+ hours a week and myself working 50 hours a week or more. So I guess I’m torn between working a 40 hour week and having more time to focus on other things in my life or working 50+ hours a week and getting the extra money and industry experience. So should I work more hours or less? Why? What other factors should I consider?

There is only one factor to consider - yourself. You have to be true to yourself. I think it is inhumane to require someone to work one minute, so 40 hours to me sounds like a prison term to me and 50+ like slavery. If you were my employee, I’d be more concerned if you were laughing enough.

c.    Real-life story problem #2: Extreme programming is a set of rules/mindsets/methods for programming. On the one hand, several of those methods aim at keeping you as hard working and productive as possible. On the other hand, the official "rules" almost forbid you to work more than 40 hours per week. So working as hard as you can for 8 hours, 5 days a week, but not more. This ‘d be a nice statement to react upon for both of them.

Everything in Nature cycles between rest and activity. Periods of rest are followed by periods of activity which are followed by periods of rest and so forth. For activity to be maximally effective there needs to be a period of rest that preceded it. The deeper the rest, the more dynamic the activity.

With regard to extreme programming, it all comes down to your inner experience. If you are exhilarated by the process and flowing with creativity then that is great. But I would caution you not to get so caught up in the activity where you forget about the rest that nourishes that activity.

d.    Is a day’s work it’s own reward, or is there a way to change your perspective regarding mind-numbing work so that it becomes fun?

I see a day’s work as a day’s punishment.

But yes, there are ways to find success in mind-numbing work. It starts with your mindset or attitude. You must turn the work into play like Tom Sawyer did with whitewashing the fence. Or you can look at the task from a fresh angle and find a way to avoid the work completely but still get it done. Perhaps you’d end up inventing some cool way that does the job and saves everyone from being miserable in the future. Then you market it and make your fortune.

Thank you, Mr. Slacker, for this opportunity. The whole process was fun. I hope it was worth the time people spent in reading all of this. To the readers who have made it this far, I wish you all effortless success so much so that you laugh all the way to the bank.

P.S. I’ve been encouraged to tell my story. I’ve also been asked a bunch of questions. I will try to give my answers on my blog in the near future and hope they are instructive. Finally, I will address the most important of all questions - how to find your calling in life. Needless to say, the answer will be via the Lazy Way.

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