Shaan Slept in Office 224 Days

Shaan tells a story about his misguided work ethic when he was younger and how he now views it as a sign of weakness rather than strength.

"I used to be in college a proud procrastinator. I would wait till the last minute, pull an all-nighter, study, pass the test, and I would wear that as a badge of honor. It became a terrible habit and identity to build around - this thing of 'when I turn it on, I have this crazy intensity, nobody can work harder than me for that 72 hours, but then I'm going to crash and procrastinate because I know I always have that in the tank.'

When I was 24 years old, I slept in the office 224 days out of a year. I thought that was me grinding. Actually, it was me highlighting to everyone, waving a flag saying 'I'm an idiot. I don't know what to do, so I'm just here all the time, just manically doing anything I could think of.'

Now I have a totally different philosophy. When I hear about somebody who has that same attitude I used to have - the badge of honor of how hard they go and how crazy they're working - it's a sign of weakness. It's like, 'Oh, you just don't have systems. You don't understand leverage. You don't have good judgment. You don't know where to put your energy, so you're just putting it everywhere.' Because I used to be that guy."