“Work, work, work”: Japan’s first female PM Sanae Takaichi rejects work-life balance — From Shah Rukh Khan to Jeff Bezos: 5 successful people who think like her
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The speech that reignited the ‘hustle’ debate
Japan’s first woman PM Sanae Takaichi, in an address to the LDP party members who made her Japan’s new PM, vowed to “work, work, work” and cast aside the “idea of work‑life balance”. From SRK and Musk to Bezos—who argue for the same.
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Sanae Takaichi: “Work like a horse”
“Because there are only a few of us, I ask everybody to work; Work like a horse… I myself will cast aside the idea of work-life balance. I’ll work, work, work, work, and work.” As Japan’s new PM and the nation’s first female PM, Takaichi links national revival to discipline and relentless work, signaling a policy ethos that prizes output over balance.
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Shah Rukh Khan: “Aaram haraam hai”
SRK has long pushed a hard‑work mantra, popularly summed up as “Aaram haraam hai,” with interviews citing advice like “If you want to be successful, don’t eat, don’t sleep, don’t rest.” The self‑made star frames sacrifice as the price of mastery—an ethos that influenced a generation of Indian strivers across industries.
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Indra Nooyi: “Balance doesn’t exist—juggle”
“There is nothing called balance. It doesn’t exist. At best, you can juggle all these priorities.” Nooyi reframes the ideal from symmetry to agility—accepting trade‑offs and improvisation as the real mechanics of high‑stakes leadership and caregiving.
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Jeff Bezos: “Harmony, not balance”
“Work‑life balance is a debilitating phrase… It’s not a balance. It’s a circle”—what he calls work‑life “harmony.” The emphasis on positive spillover—energy at work fueling home, and vice versa—offers an optimistic alternative to the zero‑sum framing of hours.
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Elon Musk: “80–100 hours to change the world”
“People need to work from around 80 to over 100 hours per week to change the world… Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.” Musk’s extreme target sets a moon‑shot bar for founders and early teams, popularizing a culture of marathon sprints in frontier tech.
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N. R. Narayana Murthy: “70‑hour work week”
“Our youngsters must say… I’d like to work 70 hours a week,” arguing low productivity demands harder work to compete globally. Murthy’s call sparked India‑wide debate on output, wages, and health, forcing companies and policymakers to confront trade‑offs head‑on.
(With inputs from TOI)
(With inputs from TOI)