Hyperliquid Founder Jeff Yan Says Hard Work Should Come Before Smart Work

Hyperliquid founder Jeff Yan has argued that people should not start by chasing “smart work.” In his view, hard work comes first. Yan said focused work can be trained gradually, from 10 hours a week to 40 hours and eventually 100 hours a week. He also recalled a stretch of several months when he built an automated trading system from scratch while working from about 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, seven days a week. That pace, he said, meant roughly 17 hours a day centered on one task. He was careful to say that this is not advice for everyone. Yan said 99% of people need work-life balance, and that is a good thing. But for people who have found a mission and know exactly what they want to build, his message is much harsher: if you really want something, throw yourself into it. Half commitment, he said, usually gets you nothing. He also extended that logic to health. If a body becomes too weak to sit and work for long periods, it turns into a bottleneck for output. Yan said his own routine has included about 30 minutes of high-intensity exercise a day, and that his back pain went away. From his perspective, extreme focus creates its own feedback loop: once work becomes the top priority, efficiency, tools and even health habits get forced into place because they affect the final result. His final point was still a caveat. Only each person knows how badly they want to achieve something. If the inner drive is not strong enough, there is no reason to force that lifestyle. But if someone has truly found their mission, Yan’s advice is blunt: let it consume your life and embrace the grind.