Building a tech scaleup demands choices that shape not just the company, but the founder’s life. One of the most common questions CEOs face is about pace and trade-offs. Should you slow down and maintain balance, or double down on intense effort to reach your goals sooner?
On Wisdom From Wizards, I spoke with Ahmed Zaidi, CEO and Chief Automation Officer at Accelirate, about this very dilemma. When asked if he would prefer to focus and work fewer hours for slower success or commit to eighty hour weeks to reach success faster, Ahmed was clear.
“Eighty hour weeks any day,” he said. It is not just about personal grit, but about strategy. For Ahmed, investing those intense hours early creates leverage later in life. He explained that putting in the ten thousand hours quickly accelerates mastery. The payoff is freedom: more time for family and fun in the future.
This mindset resonates with many scaleup CEOs who see the early grind not as permanent sacrifice but as a deliberate investment. The idea is to front-load effort so that the business can scale, leadership can delegate, and the founder can step back without risking momentum.
It is not one-size-fits-all advice. Ahmed himself notes that it depends on how you define success. For some, success is deeply tied to professional milestones that demand mastery and time. For others, balance from day one is non-negotiable.
What I appreciated most about Ahmed’s answer was the clarity and self-awareness. Knowing your goals, your personality, and your limits is critical. Leadership is full of trade-offs, and being deliberate about them is often what separates successful scaleups from those that stall.
Wisdom From Wizards is brought to you by Caribou Strategic, helping tech scaleups stand out and succeed. Conversations like this remind us that the toughest choices often have no universal answer. They require introspection, courage, and a willingness to bet on your convictions.
If you are leading a growing company, ask yourself: Are you making the choices today that buy you the freedom you want tomorrow?