Bill Gates didnt take one day of vacation in his 20s

Bill Gates didnt take one day of vacation in his 20sBill Gates didnt take one day of vacation in his 20sSometimes when youre in the early stages of a giant project, youre got to burn it working long, hard hours, with little time for anything in-between. If you let up for weeks, even days, a competitor you didnt even know you had may sneak up behind you and eat your lunch. Thats why Bill Gates pushed himself so hard in his twenties and early thirties at Microsoft, becoming one of techs most famous workaholics.I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one, the tech billionaire has said.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and morePush, push, pushLast Saturday, at an event hosted for founders by venture firm Village Global, Eventbrite co-founder and CEO Julia Hartz asked Gates if his no vacation, no weekends policy had changed since the early days of Microsoft. She also asked if the concept o f work-life balance was even possible for early-stage founders.Sort of, Gates said. How frantically you push yourself to work depends on where you are in life and what you want to accomplish.For my particular makeup, it really is true that I didnt believe in weekends I didnt believe in vacations, Gates said.But theres a method to the madness, he said, much of what had to do with the urgency of the winner-take-all market of the tech industry.I dont recommend his method, he continued. I dont think most people would enjoy it.But he found it necessary, at least initially. It is nice, if during those first several years if you have a team thats chosen to be pretty maniacal about the company I have a fairly hard-core view that there should be a very large sacrifice made during those early years.Much of this is specific to his business. In the software world particularly for platforms these are winner-take-all markets.Once some major gains were made, Gates said, he relaxed a little.Once I got into my thirties by then some kind of natural behavior kicked in and I loved weekends, and my girlfriend liked vacations, and that turned out to be kind of a neat thing. Now, I take lots of vacations. My 20-year-old self is so disgusted with my current self.And now he even has time for hobbies. When asked about his famous book lists 3634, Gates laughed at the time he now gave himself to read. The nice thing now that Im not so extreme in my twenties I didnt get to read much at all.