“I personally think that 996 is a huge blessing…How do you achieve the success you want without putting in extra effort and time?” This recent post by Jack Ma, Alibaba's founder, caused an intense global debate on work life balance.
Forget about 996, I worked 007 for most of my career (work till midnight, seven days a week)! With experiences working at intense places like Goldman Sachs and Alibaba, I share in this article how the debate helped me, which I hope can help you think through your own work life preference.
996 refers to the typical work schedule in China's tech sector from 9am to 9pm, six days a week. 996 in China coincided with the growing emphasis on work and life balance in Silicon Valley, which some people dubbed as 955 (9am to 5pm, five days a week).The 996 debate has received lots of press. This kind of bilateral debate is healthy because it helps both Americans and Chinese uncover our own blind spots.
This debate is personal to me because I did 100 hour work week during my Wall Street days between Jefferies and Goldman Sachs. In early 2017, I joined Alibaba and worked there for over two years. Compared to Wall Street, Alibaba actually gave me much better work life balance.
At Alibaba, I was on the strategic investment team responsible for venture investing and acquisitions in tech startups globally. So I worked with both Chinese and American tech firms, I believe that the right way to think about 996 vs. 955 is to know the nature of your work. If your work largely relies on execution, 996 works great. But if your work requires lots of creativity, 996 is counterproductive.
I will not discuss the implication of 996 on personal lives here. It is such an important topic that I hope to cover in future posts.
996 is fantastic for execution.
996 enables companies to grow at a lightening speed, or blitzscale (borrowing a term from Reid Hoffman). When a company is in execution mode, you want the entire team to get stuff done fast and monitor user feedback for future pivoting, ideally 24/7. 996 work schedule allows you to test product ideas in more reps given the same amount of time. Thisfast execution will allow you to out-compete other firms working on the same idea.
Chinese dockless bike share companies ofo and Mobike became billion dollar companies in two years because they moved faster than anybody else. I had lunch with the founder of ofo Wei Dai when he was recruiting my wife to join his startup, I asked Dai aboutthe biggest advantage he has. His response was "speed."
Luckin Coffee is another example. I wrote about this Chinese coffee startup at the beginning of the year. It grew to over 2000 stores in under two years. A couple of weeks ago, Luckin Coffee went IPO on Nasdaq at over $4bn in valuation. From $0 to 4$bn in less than 2 years?!
Besides speed, 996 allows you to produce more. When I was on the investment team for Alibaba, working 996 helped me and my colleagues to see more deals.On my most intense deal sourcing days, I had breakfast with founders at 7am and ended my day having drinks with fellow investors at midnight. This volume of conversations helped me see patterns of what makes startups succeed and fail. Since pattern recognition is critical in investment decisions, the 996 schedule made sense for me as an investor looking for deals.
Rebecca Fannin, an American entrepreneur, praised the 996 culture in China that symbolized its entrepreneurial vigor and warned the West about how Chinese tech firms would soon catch up with Silicon Valley on tech innovation.
I agree with Fannin on how 996 has helpedChinese tech firms in some ways. But I also find that 996 could limit Chinese tech firms in other ways. 996 is not a panacea.
Working 955and having time off is better for creativity and long term thinking.
996 is much less effective for creative work. You need the white space for the creative energy to flow. Tim Ferriss is the best advocate for having healthy balance between work and life. He went from making $40k per year and working 80 hours per week to making $40k per month and working 4 hours per week. He wrote down his experience in a book "The 4-Hour Workweek" has sold over 1 mm copies. It spent 7 years on the New York Times bestseller list. After he became famous, he made friends with great people and became early investors in Uber, Shopify, Alibaba and other billion dollar companies. Ferriss's wild success challenged many Americans about our deeply held belief that you need to grind out during youryouth in order to "make it". There is a way to work smart and become successful.
Interestingly, according to an official Jack Ma biography,which I blogged about, the Alibaba founderperiodically goes into solitude in monasteries to clear his mind. For example, right before the 10 year anniversary of Alibaba, Jack retreated to Mount Jinyun, a tranquil and historical mountain in China. Many of Jack’s key ideas that he delivered on stage at the Alibaba 10 year gala came from his time on Mount Jinyun.
I mentioned that I worked 996 when hunting for new deals. But after the initial screening of startups,I needed to synthesize my meetings with startups into a coherent investment thesis. This phase of work requires me to think deeply and creatively. And I am a lot more creative when I rest well.
So I only wrote long form investment memos in the mornings after a good night sleep. I noticed my thinking was a lot more clear than the times when I was working 996. When I was stuck in the office back on Wall Street at 2 am, I just wanted to get the heckoutof there. If anyone were to ask me to "think creatively" at that hour,I would have punched him or her in the face.
A founder friend of mine who recently left his well paying corporate job to start a company had his personal awakening to 996. When he was at his corporate job, his responsibility was executing on what the higher-ups already decided. He worked even longer hours than 996 and received great performance reviews.Now he is creating his own company. He needs to think in ten and twenty year time horizons. He told me he could not focus when he is fatigued. So he takes weekly surfing trips to Pacifica, a beach near San Francisco. He told me that some of his best ideas came out of these "wasteful surfing trips".
My best personal investment also came out of a "wasteful" Saturday morning when I was reading a book for pleasure. One idea from my reading inspired me to research on an investment thesis that made more money for me than all my other ideas. Had I skipped my pleasure reading and replied a few more work emails, I would have missed the single most important wealth creation opportunity in my life.
The current debate shows that diligence is a common national character for both China andAmerica.
So far, the public responses in Silicon Valley to China's 996 culture have mostly been critical. In private settings though, when I talk with founders and VCs, they share that they secretly feel jealous of the drive and ambition of their Chinese peers. They find that some folksin America use work life balance as an excuse for being complacent.
I personally do not believe that the debate between 996 or 955 should be about diligence vs. laziness. Most of my friends in Silicon Valley are ambitious and are working hard on big problems. They may not be in office from 9am to 9pm, but many work just as much, just with flexible location. Traveling between China and America frequently, I see the shared work ethic between the Chinese and the Americans.
Instead, the right way to think about your own work preference is to be aware of the goal of your work. If you are in a stage of execution, then hit the gas pedal all the way. But if you are brainstorming about the next billion dollar idea, then don't forget to relax and catch some waves in Santa Cruz.
Upward and forward,
Paul Chen
--- Paul Chen's Bio
I was born in China and made in America. My calling is to increase understanding and build trust between Chinese and Americans, particularly when it is hard (like...now).
I am an investor and entrepreneur. I broker deals between Chinese and Western companies. I worked at Goldman Sachs and Alibaba's strategic investment team. I am currently writing a book that rebuilds trust between U.S. and China for mutual benefits. I have an MBA from Stanford and MPA from Harvard.I am an advisor to startups at Berkeley Skydeck, advising startups on fund raising and go to market strategies.
My book will focus on Chinese innovation. As Chinese entrepreneurs are becoming creative, knowledge is transferring in both ways between the U.S. and China. I believe YOUR next billion dollar idea will come from China.
