They are work because you have to invest time into them to get the rewards. You have to find the time, in order to find the time, you have to claw back on the time you spend working on/in your business. So it becomes 'work' even though it's not, really.
That's what generally happens to people as their flywheel gains momentum. It gets harder to tell where one's contribution to society ends and one's contribution to self begins.
