Last week, I hopped on my monthly catch-up call with a friend who’s also a doctor turned entrepreneur.
At some point, our chat turned into an emotional autopsy of leaving clinical medicine.
We’d both bought into the whole “hard work” myth, and man, did we pay for it.
We worked hard to get into med school.
Worked hard to stay in.
Worked hard to start working as doctors.
And then… the hard work just never stopped.
It wasn’t “work hard, then enjoy the fruits of your labour.”
It was “work hard, then work harder, then realise the fruits are imaginary and, actually, surprise—you’re the fruit now.”
The fruit with poor health, relationships held together by sorry I’ve been so busy texts… and, inevitably, burnout.
And yet, did I learn?
Did I pause and think, “hmm, maybe I should reevaluate my entire approach to life before I collapse?”
No, obviously not.
I took that exact same grind-till-you-die belief system straight into entrepreneurship.
At first, every time something didn’t work, I threw more energy at it. More time. More brain power.
And every time, I ended up in the same place:
Utterly exhausted.
Convinced success must be difficult—because otherwise, why was I suffering? For fun?
Which, by the way, is a terrible strategy.
Because when you believe everything requires suffering, you start making everything require suffering.
Even the simple stuff.
Even the stuff that was never supposed to be hard.
Now, don’t get me wrong…I’m not dismissing hard work.
I’m just saying, before you go sprinting into an 80-hour workweek, maybe ask:
- Why am I doing this?
- Does this align with the life I actually want?
- Do I even like this, or did I just wake up one day and decide unnecessary suffering builds character?
But ughhhh, this is starting to sound too preachy, isn’t it?
Okay, let’s dial it down.
What I meant to say is… without clarity, you’re just a headless chicken panic-flapping toward a finish line you haven’t even confirmed exists.
Better?
Yeah, I thought so too.
Point is: hard work is only useful when it’s directed at something that actually makes sense.
And even then, you can still work hard while making time for guilt-free, completely purposeless play.
Because nothing—NOTHING—is worth becoming an overwhelmed workaholic for.
Not even your wildly important business that simply must succeed lest civilisation collapse.
At least, that’s my philosophy.
One that has worked pretty, pretty well for me, thank you very much.
Now, is there a part of me that wants to stay planted on my soapbox, dramatically yelling ‘MY WAY IS THE BEST WAY’ into this imaginary megaphone I seem to have given myself?
Of course.
But I won’t.
Because I know some of you have a different philosophy.
That’s fine. I respect that.
I’m not here to stage an intervention.
I’m just here to offer a different perspective… one that doesn’t involve you dissolving into a puddle of stress and unnecessary regret.
If that sounds even remotely appealing, you know where to find me: www.yosianderson.com
Disclaimer: If your business actually is the last thing holding civilisation together, please disregard this email and carry on. Also, wow, impressive.
Tp. Tp.
There’s more where that came from!
See, I’ve been writing daily productivity emails for online business owners since November 2024.
And what you just read is barely a scratch on the surface.
The real gems… The fun, insightful, and occasionally absurd behind-the-scenes stories… My best offers… The kind of stuff that makes you go:
“Wait… did that REALLY happen?”
I don’t blast those out to the whole internet.
(Some things… should be kept private.)
But if you want to snoop around… if you want to see what really happens in AYAPYLand…
There’s a door.
And it’s open.
For now.