Give your hustle a break. It could kill you.

Where did this come from? When did we all start believing that over work is the way of success, that anything less than being pushed to the edge of what is personally possible equates to not even trying?

It’s widely accepted in startups, and it’s just unhealthy. I’m going to tell you something that I know to be true. Hustle is important, but hustle isn’t worth shit if the hustler has collapsed from exhaustion. I’ve seen that time and time again, from young founders and seasoned entrepreneurs who have bought into the hustle-as-existence mentality.

These are the folks working 12 hour days, 7 days a week, grinding it out to make their startups happen, losing a little bit of themselves with every passing second of over time.

The accepted truth is that if they do that, if they punish and push themselves to the absolute max, the universe will reward them with success, and that’s bullshit.

You are not Superman

I always hated the Superman comics. They felt so pointless, because the character was so overpowered and awesome that to make the story worth anything, the writers had to ignore his invincibility or conveniently forget the basic rules of his universe.

That perfection isn’t something that you have. It’s not something you are ever going to have. If we’re talking life goals, you’d be better off basing yourself on Lex fucking Luthor than Superman, because anything else is just unhinged.

You aren’t Superman, and pretending you are will damage you in more ways than one. It’s vital for an entrepreneur to be aware of her limitations, and remain in touch with her vulnerability. At the very least, the physical ones.

If you let yourself believe you’re invincible, that way lies madness. And hubris. And just generally winding up being kind of a tool.

Your body is going to betray you

This applies no matter how many smoothies you drink or how often you “crush it” at the gym. Your body will fail you, if you push and push it too far. Your body will quit. It will walk out on you.

Overwork is not something that you can just do without consequences. A lack of sleep, an overload of stress, even too much time spent staring at a screen — sooner or later, you’ll be on the edge and it won’t take much to push you over it.

I’ve worked a lot of all nighters, drinking Red Bull and popping caffeine pills like tic tacs and my body has never let me forget it. Don’t be like that. You’ll never achieve anything if you’re in hospital with a breakdown.

You can’t enjoy anything if you don’t make the time for it

Where are you really going? Where are you trying to end up? Because wherever it is, if you want to enjoy that, if you want to actually experience it, you need to slow the fuck down. You’re not going to enjoy your coveted success if you’re an emotional, physical and spiritual mess.

No level of success is worth trading your body your heart or your soul for. No level of success is worth dying the slow death of un-conquerable overwork and over stress, with no end in sight and no way to take back the years you’ve lost.