While medical experts and most people on social media have found Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy's suggestion to youngsters to work 70 hours a week to boost the country's productivity, nearly impractical, actor, investor and entrepreneur Suniel Shetty seemed to be impressed by the suggestion.
In a long LinkedIn post, Suniel Shetty said the way he sees things, when someone like Murthy says something, people should listen carefully, analyze it for themselves, and take the best out of it.
Admitting that the '70 hours of work a week' suggestion is contentious, Shetty said it is important to stop and think about what Murthy really meant. "For me, it really isn't about the number of hours. It isn't about 70 or 100 hour weeks."
Shetty said for him, it is about going beyond the comfort zone.
"Take Virat Kohli in cricket, Mr Bachchan from the movies, Ratan Tata from business or Mr Kalam from science. All leading examples of individuals who excelled in their respective fields.
"Do we really think any of these individuals got to where they did in life, by playing within their comfort zones? Do we really think any of these individuals spent the early years of their careers worrying about whether they were striking the right balance between work & life?"
The actor said they, in their early years, and even possibly in their later years, pushed beyond the limits others set for them.
He said he believes that young adults should spend their earliest years pushing their boundaries.
"Honing skills, acquiring new ones, dealing with pressure, learning about other functions, working in collaborative environments & generally making the most of the opportunities, should be top priority for all young adults," he wrote.
He pointed out that it is easier to accelerate the learning curve in the early stages of one's career "because in most cases one needn't worry about marriage, kids, home loans or a 100 other things that life will throw your way as you grow older."
"If I could change something about my 20’s, it'd be putting in more hours on learning more. This coming from someone who was working full time by age 17, didn’t socialise much as I was manning the restaurants on most nights of the week including weekends & especially during festivals, and yet managed to maintain my fitness routines."
While it is important that people spend time for family and friends, health, and nurturing a hobby, it is important for people to get better in a rapidly changing world, which is being reshaped by technology and AI, he observed.