You didn't quit the 9-5 and start your business to just burn out, you started it so you can be free.

I’m really over this myth that real entrepreneurs have to be 24/7 hustle machines for the rest of their lives. Sure, when starting out, that kind of grind is expected. But if your end goal is to work yourself into an early grave, why even start your own business? I didn’t leave my 9-5 (well, 7-3.30), just to burn myself out forever. I left because I wanted to work hard now, set up systems, and eventually reach a point where I can actually enjoy the freedom of not working for someone else.

I'm not saying we'll reach Jeff Bezos' level, but take him as an example. He had to grind hard at the beginning. Amazon didn’t become a behemoth overnight. In the early days, Bezos was packing books in his garage and driving them to the post office himself. He worked 12-hour days, doing whatever needed to be done to get the company off the ground. But he didn’t stay there forever. As Amazon grew, Bezos shifted his focus to big-picture strategy. He even stepped down as CEO to focus on other projects. Amazon now runs itself with the people he hired.

We might not reach those levels, but we can aim for that model of working. The real value of starting your own business is freedom. Burning out isn’t success, it’s just a more exhausting version of failure.

I am still working my ass off now, but I want to enjoy it all one day. Do you do it for the grind, or for the eventual freedom?