Many, especially young, people have quite some problems understanding how much time works really takes and how little time you have left for non-work related things. Let’s say you aren’t really a morning person, so you come to work at 10am, and you consider yourself a gourmand who takes at least an hour for your lunch. With this parameters, you should stay in the office at least till 7pm every workday, if you want to work 40 hours per week, which is a bare minimum to keep pace with others. And if you happen to have some activities in the afternoon or prefer to finish early on Friday, 8pm would need to be your office leaving time.

At the beginning of Apple’s resurrection Steve Jobs gave a brilliant speech to a group of employees:

Apple is a start-up.  Granted, it’s a startup with $6B in revenue, but that can and will go in an instant.  If you are here for a cushy 9-to-5 job, then that’s OK, but you should go.  We’re going to make sure everyone has stock options, and that they are oriented towards the long term.  If you need a big salary and bonus, then that’s OK, but you should go.  This isn’t going to be that place.  There are plenty of companies like that in the Valley.  This is going to be hard work, possibly the hardest you’ve ever done.  But if we do it right, it’s going to be worth it.

As Americans like to say, you can’t have your cake and eat it too!