How Much Work and Rest Do You Need? Bezos, Gates, Branson and Cook Answer
Bill Gates is not able to think clearly if he does not get enough sleep, and Richard Branson believes that it is important to take care of employees. RBC Pro collected statements from a business guru about an adequate approach to work and leisure, respect for employees and the importance of healthy sleep.
The stereotypical image of a successful leader of a large company is an avid workaholic who works without vacations and breaks for food and sleep. One has only to remember the famous saying of Elon Musk: “Work like a damned one. You need to work 80 to 100 hours a week. [It] increases the chances of success.” Yes, and Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, also believes that successful work requires 12 hours of work every day. However, most CEOs still understand the importance of rest, sleep well, and even manage to devote time to their personal lives.
Here’s what business gurus like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson think about healthy sleep, the perfect work rhythm, and humane treatment of employees.
On healthy team relationships
Businessman and founder of the Bloomberg news agency Michael Bloomberg is absolutely sure that no one wants to work where he has no responsibility: “Quite the opposite. The more power you give people, the better people you can attract, the harder they will work, and the more loyal they will be.”
As Jack Welch, who was the CEO of General Electrics for a long time, believed, the fundamental difference between an ordinary employee and a leader is that the former should concentrate on his own development, while the latter will be successful by “educating others”, that is, helping his subordinates grow and develop. .
Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson also believes that employees should be at the top of any leader’s list of priorities: “If you take care of your employees, they will take care of their customers.” Branson is generally known for his benevolent attitude towards subordinates. One day, he drove into the Virgin Group office in Australia and found one of the employees sleeping on the couch. Branson wrote about the story on the company blog and added, “Honestly, he was just getting the rest he needed.”
About the ideal work schedule
To deal with a lot of things, Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey has created a schedule for himself, highlighting the days when he is engaged in various activities of his companies. “Monday is management. At Square we have a board meeting, on Twitter we have an operations committee meeting. Tuesday is about product and design. Wednesday is about marketing, growth and communication. Thursday is dedicated to partners and developers, and on Friday I am engaged in the company and corporate culture. Such a “separation” of areas of activity allows him to fully concentrate on one task and not be “torn” between equally important matters.
Tim Cook likes to start his days early. He is at his desk at 4 am: “I do this because I can control the morning better than the evening and all day. During the day, things happen that throw you off course, but the early morning is yours.” What does the morning routine look like for someone who runs one of the most successful companies in the world? He reads emails from clients. In his own words, about a hundred a day. “I can’t read them all, no. I wouldn’t admit it. But I have read a lot of them. This allows me to keep my finger on the pulse and understand what our customers feel, think and do", explains Tim Cook himself.
Jeff Bezos also prefers the morning schedule. That is why he always leaves all important decisions for the morning. Usually - at 10-11 o’clock. “I discuss it the night before, but then I definitely go to bed, and in the morning I really make a decision,” says Bezos.
Research shows that each time we are distracted from a task, it can take up to 25 minutes to get back on track. That’s why Dustin Moskowitz, CEO of Asana, believes that scheduling work without breaks is the key to getting the most out of yourself and your team.
“We have a ’no Wednesday meeting’ rule so that everyone in the company has enough time to focus on work without doing it in between meetings. This may be our most valuable cultural practice and I encourage every company to consider adopting it,” says Moskowitz.
On the importance of sleep
It is believed that the most famous and wealthy entrepreneurs sleep very little or even live according to the Leonardo da Vinci system: a short dream of 15-20 minutes every four hours.
However, for example, Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp admits that sleep is precious to him: “I will be very disappointed if I don’t go to bed before midnight. We also have a rule: no laptops in the bedroom. Being at the computer all the time, I feel disgusting.
Bill Gates says he can’t think creatively if he doesn’t get enough sleep: “While it’s sometimes fun to stay up all night, if I have to be creative, I need seven hours. I can give a speech after a sleepless night, I can do some of my work, but my creative thinking is much worse.”
“I sleep 8 hours a day. It helps me think better, energizes me and improves my mood,” says Jeff Bezos.
Evan Williams, creator and CEO of blogging platform Medium, recommends taking care of yourself: “When you stay awake, eat junk food, don’t exercise, and live off adrenaline for too long, your productivity suffers. Your decisions suffer. Your company is suffering."
About work-life balance
Coca-Cola CEO Brian Dyson advises striving for balance in your life: “Think of life as a game where you juggle five balls in the air. These are work, family, health, friends and spirit. You will soon realize that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls—family, health, friends, and spirit—are made of glass. If you drop one of them, it will be permanently scratched, damaged, or even broken. He will never be the same."
Jeff Bezos believes that people should consider “work” and “life” as a whole, and not as two separate entities. “I get asked all the time about work-life balance, and I think it’s a terrible phrase because it implies a strict compromise.” In fact, there is no need to balance between life and work, because all this is a single cycle, the businessman is sure.
The main thing that Richard Branson has learned in his 50 years in business is that to combat burnout, you definitely need to add one more item to your to-do list: “be”. Undoubtedly, you need to make time for your daily and work routine, but just as important is to simply enjoy life: “In addition to meetings, meetings and answering work messages, take time to be inspired, enjoy the beauty of the world and laugh with your loved ones.”
For Basecamp founder Jason Fried, success isn’t about revenue targets or big money. He prefers to ask himself questions: “Do I want to go to work tomorrow and do the same thing that I did the day before? I like it? Do I like the people I work with? Am I challenging myself intellectually and creatively?” That, according to the entrepreneur, matters.