In defense (and praise) of rest

I have a complicated relationship with rest. Often, it's a negative one. I feel guilty when I rest, when I don't do anything for a short period of time, or when I try not to think about work. I know why this is. I’m the product of uber-capitalistic, always-be-sourcing-producing-shipping-hustle culture, something that was instilled in me from a young age by American exceptionalism combined with a heavy dose of survival-at-all-costs Indian immigrant mentality.

I’d like to challenge the “rest when you die” framework that I grew up on. Taking a holiday is fantastic. We all know the benefits by now. But as someone running your own business, occasional rest seems vital to long-term success.

Every now and then, you come across a piece of philosophy that is so orthogonal to your own that it makes you sit up and scratch your head. This happened to me when I listened to a podcast by Yvon Chouinard, former CEO of Patagonia, who said he takes 3 months off each summer to go fly fishing (while being the CEO of a massive company!). When I first heard this, I was first shocked, and then I was in awe and admiration.

I doubt it was such smooth sailing for Yvon when he first started Patagonia, but it seems that Yvon was intentional about allowing time for rest as the company grew. I suspect a big part of being able to even do this was enabled by being bootstrapped and keeping the company private (imagine what would happen to Meta’s stock price if Mr. Zuckerberg went on a 3-month holiday?).

If Yvon can build a company in that way, it means others can too. Maybe even I could do it? I would in fact like to build a company where I can have time to rest and so can my employees. I want to build a company that will last for a long, long time, maybe even outlive me. It’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of rest to get there.