The real question though is why you would WANT to retire in 10 years? He would be 32 or 34, and he will have spent his entire 20s elminating time for friends, relationships, and hobbies. So you get to the 30s, and suddenly you have 10 million dollars and what are you going to do? Stop working and do nothing? He already said he doesn't want to do that. And if you try to meet someone for a relationship - it is somewhat overshadowed by your money. Your friends (who you labeled a distraction in your 20s when you lived with them, how likely are they to be friends with you in your 30s?) will probably have moved on. You have no hobbies because you spend little time on them. So what do you have? A bunch of money and no life.
My solution - find what I enjoy working on, work on it 60 hours a week, and enjoy the other 40 hours a week with my girlfriend, traveling, playing my sports, learning beyond just what I do for work. I don't watch tv, I don't waste time on a lot of silly things, but I do enough that I have a healthy balance. He struggled to uninstall his video games and he is going to tell me that is a healthy life balance when it includes no time for friends, family, or a girlfriend? I would rather work on what I like for 40 years, and spend the whole time enjoying it along the way, than work really hard for 7 years and hate my life during and after that. Just the fact that you have a large bank account does NOT make you happy. It is what you do with it that MAY make you happy, but even then - there are a lot of ways to be happy with less money than you think.
I was going to do a follow up on this, but I decided it may be better if I dedicate another article to the topic. I think you've raised a really good point, and there are two really good counter-arguments I've seen so far to working 80 hours a week:
1) 80 hours isn't always more productive than 60 hours of someone else's time, and in fact may be counter-productive.
2) What do you have to show for after 10 years of playing the startup lottery? In your best case: you probably have a huge bank account, but no life left at that point.
I think this deserves a separate discussion. I'll keep this in the back of my head and think it over, post up another response when the time's right. At either rate, it's cool to see your guys' feedback.
Myself, I want to "retire" early so I can start working more exclusively on what I love without having to worry when and how I can monetize my work. I'd rather have 500k in bank and complete independence than 100 millions and having to report to someone.
"Complete independence" is partially based on net wealth. If you have 100 million in the bank, you can tell your boss to buzz off, so it's a moot point.
I think for me, the balance is somewhere in the middle: work 6 hour workdays at my dayjob (https://qht.co/item?id=231642), and work on my ideas part-time. If an idea becomes successful, that will become my dayjob, and I will continue working on other ideas, since they never really end, or do something else on the side (spend time with family, perhaps home-school my kids, etc.)
My solution - find what I enjoy working on, work on it 60 hours a week, and enjoy the other 40 hours a week with my girlfriend, traveling, playing my sports, learning beyond just what I do for work. I don't watch tv, I don't waste time on a lot of silly things, but I do enough that I have a healthy balance. He struggled to uninstall his video games and he is going to tell me that is a healthy life balance when it includes no time for friends, family, or a girlfriend? I would rather work on what I like for 40 years, and spend the whole time enjoying it along the way, than work really hard for 7 years and hate my life during and after that. Just the fact that you have a large bank account does NOT make you happy. It is what you do with it that MAY make you happy, but even then - there are a lot of ways to be happy with less money than you think.