A few days back, Brandon and I met with a couple of scary-successful entrepreneurs.  Inc 500’s, Fortune 500’s, and IPO’s litter their 40+ year careers.

As they were telling us their story, one mentioned:
“At the time, I was working 130 hours a week and she was working 100 hours a week. (pause)  That’s what you have to do.”

Hopefully not!

I mean, that’s why we all love the internet so much.  It’s the great equalizer for launching any business, it’s the land of opportunity, it’s the best way to generate passive income.

17 hour days are for the corporate birds in their Famous Barr suits and briefcases.  Grinding it for the man.

But it’s also hard to argue with someone who’s built a 9 figure business through sweat.

How many hours do you need to work a week to kill it online? To build a good business?  Of course it all depends.

Recently, a group of well-known ‘net people answered this very question.  All successful people, all work a good number of hours.  (Not 130, but some are getting up there.)

I’ve met most of those people and it’s clear they enjoy what they do.  That definitely helps.  But you can see that the amount of time they work varies.  And who knows what constitutes ‘work’ for them, or for you even?

What looks like work in 2010 probably looked like vacation in 1980 when our successful friends were building their business.  Checking email, responding to customers on Twitter, drinking Ginger Boys in Del Mar.  That’s work for me.

By that definition, I guess I work like 80 hours a week.  But it doesn’t feel like it, thankfully.  Here’s what it seems to boil down to:

1. Wake up every morning ready to get at it.
2. Have a long-term outlook.
3. Never stop learning.

That’s enough.  Keep getting better every day and don’t let up.  Working 100 hours a week isn’t going to guarantee success, and hopefully the way business works online you can either put in less than that, or feel like it isn’t ‘work’.

Image: HeadovMetal