Posted on September 10, 2007 by Nate Whitehill

With all this talk lately about the dream of a shorter workweek, it just convinces me how much spin dominates consensus. One only gets to the 4-hour workweek after years of insanely difficult work.

Even though everyone has dreams of the 4-hour workweek, the fact is that 99.95% of those who have been successful have had to (at least, initially) endure much more than even a 40-hour workweek. That being said, why would someone want to work less if they enjoy what they do? Perhaps an even better and more useful question is, “How does one get to the place of enjoying work?” One answer to that lies in learning how to create opportunities.

When Opportunities Present Themselves

I used to be frustrated because I thought I never had any opportunities. In reality, my attitude was all wrong and kept me from seeing the opportunities before me. Instead of being frustrated, I decided to create my own opportunities. My blog has helped me to accomplish that to a tremendous extent. Consistent blogging has the potential to lead to hundreds, if not thousands of new opportunities everyday. Every new opportunity that has arisen for me in the past few months has been a result of consistent efforts at creating opportunity.

My goal for the past few years now has been to create and develop a successful Internet startup. Over the past eight months, I have remained extremely focused on this goal and have been using my blog as the networking tool to further my progress. I believe the key in becoming successful lies in learning to both seize AND create opportunities. For example, I had been planning to launch Unique Blog Designs for several months prior to designing John Chow’s blog. UBD was an opportunity I created. Obviously, I had a wonderful opportunity to launch UBD when I seized the opportunity to design John’s new blog. Does that make sense?

Creating opportunities enables one to seize more opportunities: it’s the snowball effect. If you can master that, your life will feel like never-ending good luck. In reality, luck is a by-product of capitalizing on opportunities. Recognizing this motivates me to work harder.

The Sixteen Hour Workday

Ever since the launch of Unique Blog Designs, my business partners, Matt Blancarte, Josh Mullineaux and I have been running a bootstrapped office out of my room. Don’t let the large screens fool you, our work is not just fun and games. For almost 3 weeks now, we have been working 16-hour days on what has quickly become an all-consuming business.

Am I serious? 16 hours a day? Here is our typical daily schedule:

1. 1:00 PM: Wake up. Check email.
2. 1:30 PM: Go to the pool. It is 100+ out here in Arizona. The pool is a great way to wake up. Not to mention, aqua skimming challenges are pretty damn fun!
3. 2:15: Lunch/breakfast.
4. 3:00-9PM: Get to work. Usually consists of designing, correspondence, strategy and marketing meetings, other administrative work.
5. 9PM-10PM: Go to gym to work out to relieve stress.
6. 10PM-8AM: Back to work.
7. 8AM-1PM: Sleep and then back to work.

This is what happens 7 days a week, no joke.

24/7 Vacation

Funny thing is that even though we work so much, oftentimes, I feel like I am on a 24/7 vacation. Obviously it is because I enjoy designing and building our business. Work to me is not work; it’s fun. Everyday we are getting closer to our goals, and that is why I work 16-hours a day. (Maybe I should go back and read my article on why balance is important!)