There’s no question that the explosion of ChatGPT and other AI-powered technology has ushered in a new era of productivity, with some leaders even predicting that a four-day workweek is closer than ever before. At the same time, the pressure is only intensifying on workers to maximize every advantage.
And some business leaders have set extreme examples. Take Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang. Just last week, he admitted that both he and his two children, who also work for the semiconductor manufacturer, work every day of the week—including holidays.
But not everyone believes the future belongs to the workaholics. In fact, some of the best workers Shopify president Harley Finkelstein knows stick to traditional work schedules.
“You don’t have to work 80 hours a week to perform well, to be a high performer,” he said on the Aspire with Emma Grede podcast. “I know people that work 40 hours a week that are some of the greatest performers ever. They’re just incredibly efficient with their time.”
While most people will still face the occasional late night or weekend email, Finkelstein said real balance comes from tailoring your work rhythm to your life.
“I think this idea of work-life balance is a little bit of a misnomer. I think actually what we’re all searching for is like some sort of harmony,” he added. “There are some Saturdays where I have to work, and there are some Thursday afternoons that I go for a walk with my wife. That’s my version of harmony.”
Be a ‘Swiss army knife’—and work hard when the moment calls
For Finkelstein, hard work has long been part of his DNA. As a teenager with dreams of becoming a DJ, he couldn’t land gigs without experience, so he created his own opportunities.
Later, as a student at the University of Ottawa, he launched a side gig selling T-shirts to cover rent and support his family. That venture brought him into contact with Tobias Lütke, who was then selling snowboards online using software he had built—software that would eventually become Shopify.
With a law degree, Finkelstein didn’t fit the stereotypical startup mold. But when Lütke invited him to join the fledgling company, he embraced what he later called a “Swiss army knife” role.
“Anything that needed to get done on the legal or business side? I would do it. I made my skills from law school extremely transferable,” he wrote on LinkedIn in 2022.
Even for Finkelstein, 80-hour workweeks weren’t uncommon in those early years. But once his family started to grow, he made adjustments to establish balance in what feels like “one big, meaningful pursuit.”
“Someone asked me how I know I’ve found mine. My answer? Because Monday mornings feel like Saturday mornings,” Finkelstein wrote. “Whatever your mission is, I hope you find the thing that makes Monday feel like Saturday. Because that’s when you know you’re building something that really matters.”
Fortune reached out to Finkelstein for further comment.
Work-life balance isn’t constant
Finkelstein’s view of work-life balance isn’t far from what many other high-performing leaders have argued: Harmony isn’t fixed—it shifts with circumstance.
Cisco’s chief product officer Jeetu Patel, for instance, works 18-hour days, seven days a week. But even he insists that balance is possible as long as it is designed intentionally. For Patel, that means making sure his daughter can reach him anytime and never compromising his physical health.
“You have to figure out a way to make sure that it works for you, and you have to make sure that the people around you think that that’s okay,” Patel previously told Fortune. “You have to create that system for yourself. I don’t think anyone else can create it for you.”
Even former President Barack Obama echoed a similar idea earlier this year on The Pivot Podcast, noting that balance often comes in phases and that temporary imbalance can be a necessary part of achieving goals.
“If you want to be excellent at anything—sports, music, business, politics—there’s going to be times of your life when you’re out of balance, where you’re just working and you’re single-minded.”
