In Defense of Netflix

I listen to a lot of podcasts, and again and again I hear interviews with entrepreneurs crediting their ceaseless hard work and unending toil for their success.
 
They keep saying things like, “You have a choice, you can either chill out and watch Netflix at night, or you can work on your business.”
 
But I disagree. I don’t think it is either/or. I don’t believe that switching gears and ‘chilling out to watch Netflix’ really is bad for your business. I’m pretty sure it’s completely necessary, at least for me.
 
I also keep hearing about entrepreneurs who say that they get their best work done in the morning, and I've certainly found that to be true. I usually wake up with an idea or an instinct, and leap out of bed (to get coffee, and then) to pursue it. I do my best writing in the morning. Saturday mornings are when I do my best sustained thinking work – I love being able to spend six or more uninterrupted hours on a project or product development.
 
By 5 or 6pm, my brain is usually done with the 'strategic work" part of its day, however. Hello, Netflix! Or Hulu. Or HBO Go. Or Amazon Prime.
 
However, even though my brain might be a bit fried by the end of the day, there are still a lot of important tasks that can be completed in the company of streaming entertainment – tasks that actually enable my entrepreneurial activities during my fresher hours.
 
I pay bills. I take care of online shopping. I track expenses. I do laundry, cook dinner – you know, all the normal life activities that need to be done whether you’re trying to build a business or not. I’ve also found this is when I’m at my most relaxed to network, coach clients, or visit with friends.
 
And I think there are a couple of important points to make here. First, your business cannot be built in a vacuum. No matter how driven you are, in order to really understand product-market fit, you need to actually live in the real world. And in the real world, there are cool shows on Netflix. Personally, I often use popular culture references as metaphors or analogies in my work to help articulate subtle concepts.
 
I also use shared understanding of culture to connect with clients, partners, and colleagues. Being able to laugh over a funny line on Silicon Valley helps build and cement relationships. It demonstrates that I am, in fact, a human (wow, that sounded very Laurie Bream). A television-watching human, and not a robot that works on its business 24 hours a day. That’s just weird.
 
The second point, in the same vein is, your business also cannot be built in a vacuum. Arguably, no one is working harder than Arianna Huffington to prove this point. Her organization, Thrive Global, is dedicated to shifting our perceptions of what and how we succeed in business. Fighting burnout requires not only sleep, but psychic rest, and sometimes that means Netflix.
 
“Recent science has shown that the pervasive belief that burnout is the price we must pay for success is a delusion. We know, instead, that when we prioritize our well-being, our decision-making, creativity, and productivity improve dramatically,” writes Huffington.
 
The model of working around the clock, fueled by 5-hour energy drinks and a dream is outmoded.
 
In his blog, Tim Ferriss speaks to the necessity of ‘deloading’, and a conscious period of “strategically taking my foot off the gas,” and “for lack of poetic description — unplugging and fucking around.”
 
This brings me to my final point, what’s with all the entrepreneur-shaming? Why are we still engaged in this competitive battle over who can work the hardest? This isn’t college; you don’t look cool because you pulled an all-nighter to finish a paper. Why are people who deny themselves awesome shows on Netflix somehow more worthy of success than those who don’t?
 
Everyone in this game is juggling life priorities. Everyone is walking the tightrope of time management. And most of us also know that horrible feeling when you realize that the only thing standing between you and what you want is your own time/ability/hard work/innovation/drive/delivery/insert-whatever-else-is-standing-between-you-and-what-you-want-here.
 
We also know that entrepreneurship is a mind game. It takes resilience and mental toughness. You have to be able to ride the rollercoaster every day. So at the end of the day, I’d suggest that you put your feet up for a while and watch The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu. It’s very good. Then you’ll be ready to take on the world again tomorrow.
 
How do you battle burnout?
Have I got it all wrong? Is entrepreneurship really fueled by 5-hour Energy Drinks and a Dream?

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