What would you sacrifice to become a billionaire by the time you turn 30 years old?
For 22-year-old entrepreneur Emil Barr, it means doing away completely with any semblance of a work-life balance while you’re young enough to pull off a work-only life.
In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, he weighed in on the debate that’s raging through leadership circles, with some CEOs convinced that a healthy balance is good for workers and business, while others like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang insist on maintaining an always-on mentality.
Barr—founder of Step Up Social, managing partner of Candid Network and a cofounder of Flashpass—said he’s already built two companies with a combined value of more than $20 million, as he delayed gratification while his peers partied.
“When you front-load success early, you buy the luxury of choice for the rest of your life,” he wrote.
That came at a steep price. While building up Step Up Social in his dorm room at Miami University in Ohio, he said he averaged just 3½ hours of sleep a night and worked 12½ hours a day on his business during its first year.
In the process, he gained 80 pounds and struggled with anxiety as he crushed Red Bull energy drinks to power through his marathon days.
“But this level of intensity was the only way to build a multimillion-dollar company,” Barr added.
Narrow window
Adding to the urgency of this frenetic pace, he argued there’s a narrow window for “building something meaningful.”
At the same time, young people today have the means for achieving success, such as easy access to information, global markets and productivity tools.
“The median starting salary for U.S. college graduates is $55,000, which means earning your first million takes years,” Barr said. “But if you optimize ruthlessly during your peak physical and cognitive years, you could achieve financial freedom by 30 and buy yourself choices for the rest of your life.”
He listed five ways he was ruthless:
The first was outsourcing nonessential tasks, like cleaning around the house, preparing meals, and getting groceries.
Second was trimming his social commitments, even as he acknowledged that he lost some friends and suffered through isolation.
Third was optimizing school by taking courses that were related to his business ventures or business interests, while also avoiding classes that banned laptops and prevented him off from attending to clients.
Fourth was a “zero-base calendar” where every social commitment, including family gatherings, had to be weighed against his business obligations.
Fifth was saving time on transportation, even if that meant paying extra for a 20-minute flight to avoid driving for three hours.
‘Comfortably mediocre’
“I’m not suggesting that everyone eliminate work-life balance, but rather arguing that for ambitious young people who want to build wealth, traditional balance is a trap that will keep you comfortably mediocre,” Barr said.
Still, he also suggested his brutal hamster wheel of non-stop activity would eventually slow down. He said he plans to become a billionaire by 30—and by then he expects to have the time and resources for more personal causes like climate change, species extinction and economic inequality.
Barr is the latest leader to offer a perspective on work-life balance. Former President Barack Obama told The Pivot Podcast last year that “if you want to be excellent at anything—sports, music, business, politics—there’s going to be times of your life when you’re out of balance, where you’re just working and you’re single-minded.”
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan has also said work-life balance doesn’t exist for leaders, adding that he’s given up hobbies entirely to dedicate himself to his $20 billion company.
But he still draws a line with it comes to his family. “Whenever there’s a conflict, guess what? Family first. That’s it,” he told the Grit podcast in June.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said last year that the bank encourages employees to “take care of your mind, your body, your spirit, your soul, your friends, your family, your health.”
He added that if you work efficiently and not waste time, there will be opportunities to do other things.
“I still get my exercise,” Dimon said. “I still get my time. I take all my vacations. So you can do it. Sometimes you just can’t do it all at the time.”