{"id":300700,"date":"2025-10-13T19:37:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T19:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/300700\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T19:37:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T19:37:29","slug":"ceo-of-8-billion-ai-company-says-its-mind-boggling-that-people-think-you-can-work-38-hours-a-week-have-work-life-balance-and-be-successful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/300700\/","title":{"rendered":"CEO of $8 billion AI company says it\u2019s \u2018mind-boggling\u2019 that people think you can work 38 hours a week, have work-life balance, and be successful"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis notion that somehow you can achieve greatness, you can build something extraordinary by working 38 hours a week and having work-life balance, that is mind-boggling to me,\u201d Andrew Feldman, cofounder and CEO of $8.1 billion<\/a> AI chip company Cerebras<\/a>, stressed recently on the 20VC podcast<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s not true in any part of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

As many U.S. workers push for shorter workweeks<\/a>, America\u2019s founders are still sticking with \u201cgrindset\u201d culture as the formula for trillion-dollar success. Feldman is just one of many business leaders, including Google<\/a> cofounder Sergey Brin<\/a> and Shark Tank investor Kevin O\u2019Leary<\/a>, emphasizing the hard truth of success.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, professionals can stick to a 40-hour workweek and still be happy\u2014but the Cerebras CEO stipulated that they won\u2019t be the ones launching the next unicorn or rolling out generation-defining products.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can have a great life. You can do many really good things, and there are lots of paths to happiness,\u201d Feldman continued. \u201cBut the path to build something new out of nothing, and make it great, isn\u2019t part-time work. It isn\u2019t 30, 40, 50 hours a week. It\u2019s every waking minute. And of course, there are costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The myth of work-life balance\u2014and a 60-hour \u2018sweet spot\u2019<\/p>\n

Leaders at the top of their game have been dispelling the myth of work-life balance; Zoom<\/a> CEO Eric Yuan<\/a> told staffers that<\/a> there\u2019s \u201cno way\u201d to achieve harmony with the two, as \u201cwork is life, life is work\u201d; former U.S. President Barack Obama said that to be<\/a> \u201cexcellent at anything\u201d requires a one-track mind at certain times; and even LinkedIn<\/a> cofounder Reid Hoffman<\/a> warned that<\/a> launching a startup requires letting go of binge-watching Netflix<\/a> after office hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I ever hear a founder talking about, \u2018This is how I have a balanced life,\u2019 they\u2019re not committed to winning,\u201d Hoffman told Stanford University\u2019s How to Start a Startup class<\/a> in 2014. \u201cThe only really great founders are [the ones who are] like, \u2018I am going to put literally everything into doing this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Entrepreneurs looking to take their businesses to new heights may question where to draw the line and unplug from the chaos\u2014and some Silicon Valley founders have pushed back<\/a> on toxic 100-hour workweeks. But there seems to be a general consensus that nine-to-five schedules won\u2019t lead to rapid career growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The CEO of $17 billion business<\/a> Twilio<\/a>, Khozema Shipchandler only gives himself eight hours on Saturdays to not think about work. Shipchandler told Fortune<\/a> that \u201cevery one of us has to make certain work-life choices,\u201d and people can choose to pursue their hobbies and take evenings for themselves\u2014however, he\u2019s \u201cnever spoken to a peer\u201d who doesn\u2019t have the same schedule as he does.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Likewise, Tennis champion Serena Williams said entrepreneurs<\/a> have to \u201cshow up 28 hours out of 24\u201d daily, and multimillionaire O\u2019Leary advised founders<\/a> to \u201cforget about balance \u2026\u00a0You\u2019re going to work 25 hours a day, seven days a week, forever.\u201d Budding CEOs can\u2019t take their advice literally\u2014but one leader has set the record straight on just how many hours people should actually be working. Earlier this year billionaire computer scientist Brin told<\/a> Google<\/a> Gemini staffers that \u201c60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity,\u201d and workplace experts<\/a> say it\u2019s actually about going the extra mile.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lesson for most young professionals is if you want to get ahead, you\u2019re not going to get there [with] 40 hours a week,\u201d Dan Kaplan, co-head of the CHRO practice at ZRG Partners, told Fortune<\/a> earlier this year. \u201cPart of the danger of the comment [about] the 60-hour workweek is it\u2019s actually not about 60. It\u2019s about working extra until the work is done.\u201d <\/p>\n

While entrepreneurs are\u00a0conflicted on exactly\u00a0how many hours they should work to hit optimum productivity, Feldman tells\u00a0Fortune\u00a0there is no magic number. Instead, the focus should be on getting things done.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about logging hours,\u201d Feldman explains. \u201cIt\u2019s about being passionate and being consumed by the work. It\u2019s about being driven to change the world, to be the best you can be, and to help your team be the best it can be.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Fortune Global Forum<\/strong> returns Oct. 26\u201327, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis notion that somehow you can achieve greatness, you can build something extraordinary by working 38 hours a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":300701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[600,738,64,17900,16778,152978,18313,9604,607,50123,18315,39852,2722,210,1165,4201,135950,5224,152979,15322,28953,158,67,132,68,3642,56210,89234,14337,56211,61269],"class_list":{"0":"post-300700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-advice","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-career-advice","12":"tag-careers","13":"tag-ceo-wellness","14":"tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","15":"tag-entrepreneurs","16":"tag-entrepreneurship","17":"tag-executives","18":"tag-founders","19":"tag-gemini","20":"tag-google","21":"tag-health","22":"tag-lifestyle","23":"tag-linkedin","24":"tag-reid-hoffman","25":"tag-serena-williams","26":"tag-sergey-brin","27":"tag-silicon-valley","28":"tag-start-ups","29":"tag-technology","30":"tag-united-states","31":"tag-unitedstates","32":"tag-us","33":"tag-wall-street","34":"tag-well-being","35":"tag-work-life","36":"tag-work-life-balance","37":"tag-workplace-wellness","38":"tag-zoom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}