I can see where the work-in-the-weekends-to-succeed -idea comes from, but as a generalisation it couldn’t be further from the truth.

Working hard to succeed rings true, but means more finding your individual style of both being effectful and working smart to make things happen. Counting plain hours at the office as a measure is plain stupid, you should be able to set your goals smarter.

Any long term creative and innovative work thrives from work/life -balance and experience. As a junior you probably compensate the lack of skills by working longer but that’s probably because you haven’t found your true self yet. I’ve found best inventions thrive on breaking the routines and giving your mind something else than the office and the keyboard.

As you get older and more experienced you tend to get more effective as well, and add other priorities such as family or hobbies into your life. In general this makes life more enjoyable and rewarding. Being successful is not a race but a marathon. If you work hard you probably achieve and enjoyable level of success, but make sure to get it in your own terms. Very small percentage of us actually gets Mayer-level rich and there luck also plays a huge part.

We run a fairly successful design studio with a senior ataff and while we did crunch too many long days when we started because if was fun, we quickly learned. Now we’re pretty much 9 to 5 and business is better than ever. People can work from wherever they want, but many of us like to work together as a team a lot because that’s out style. Many people work at clients as well and adapt to their culture and rhythm. Everyone’s really good and passionate about what they do. But forced working on the weekends? Hell no. That’s usually a sign of failed time- or project (micro-) management.