Work can wait, your wedding can't

I saw something insane on LinkedIn today. A founder bragging about his co-founder about submitting a pull-request during his own wedding. Let that sink in for a moment.

When I started working in the industry, I thought I knew what hard work was. Working until my eyes bled out and my fingers were numb. I was wrong. True hard work isn’t about grinding until you drop. It’s about passion, focus, and knowing when to step back.

Here’s the reality: You can always find another reason to keep working. Just one more line of code, one more bug to fix. But you can’t get back the moments you miss. You’re wedding day is once in a lifetime. No product launch, no matter how groundbraking will ever compare to that.

But this isn’t just about weddings. It is about the idea that work should consume every aspect of your life. That you are not commintted unless you are always on. Always grinding for that carrot that you put infront of yourself. Bullshit.

Real work - good work - doesn’t come from a place of exhaustion. It happens in focused burst. It happens when you are well-rested, well-fed, and well-loved. The bug that you are grinding for hours, you’ll probably get the right idea when you are out on walk.

Here are things that are actually impressive:

• Shipping great products consistently
• Building a business that respects people’s time and energy
• Enjoying your wedding day with your friends and family

We need to stop glorifying overwork. If your business can’t survive you taking day off for your wedding, then you don’t have a business, you have a ticking time bomb.

In the end, our legacy won’t be the 2k lines of code we wrote on our wedding day. It will be the relationships we built, the inspiration we gave, and the innovation we brought to the world. That is the kind of success worth pursuing.

Work can wait. Your wedding can’t.