To Go Hardcore How Much “Life” Would You Trade?

“Go hardcore or get out of my way.” —Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s now infamous ultimatum email may as well ask Twitter employees, “How much blood are you willing to let to enrich a billionaire?” Maybe that sounds too cynical, but not everyone aspires to achieve uber-wealth-status or serve those who have.

And working under the new leadership at Twitter simply may not be worth the price.

A question of trading life for money.

Those who choose the singular focus of acquiring mega wealth are doing just that—choosing money over other incredible parts of this life. It’s the purest form of scorekeeping, that’s all.

I believe most of us strive to lead a more balanced approach to life. One that includes those close to us, our careers, avocational aspirations, experiences, and pastimes.

Beware of email from the new guy at the top.

According to a copy of an internal email sent by the billionaire, “Elon Musk has given employees until Thursday evening to commit to ‘extremely hardcore’ work or else leave the company.” —CNN

To me that sounds like a choice between life in a supermax vs. living in your dream home in your favorite place in the world.

The memo goes on, “This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”

Back in my days with Big Corpa, I worked on so many high-pressure projects that part of me is still numb from the experience. Oh, you can tell, can you?

Going hardcore routinely ends the same way.

There is one throughline with all those high-pressure (aka – hardcore) projects—long hours result in negative productivity. And high-intensity work results in burnout. Study after study proves it.

Elon Musk’s go hardcore or go home email contained a link to click to accept the new mandate or do nothing receive a three-month severance package.

To click or not to click—that was the choice.

The witching hour. 5pm Eastern on Thursday. Click yes to stay, or don’t to go. Sort of feels like a red pill, blue pill thing, doesn’t it?

One of my earliest posts on LifeUntucked® was titled “What’s Your Price?” The blog was inspired by a Thoreau quote I had stumbled across earlier that day. 

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”

—Henry David Thoreau

I usually like to avoid making things in life about money, and the word “price” makes me think in terms of dollars. Our inner scorekeepertends to lead us to think that way. Far too often, anyway.

What “amount of life” would be required to accept the mandate to go hardcore? It could be measured in time, health, relationships, and the other things that matter most to us. How much of your soul are you willing to give?

The real question is, “How much life are you willing to give up in exchange for ‘X’?” And ‘X’ can be anything from necessities like food, clothing, and homes to all the “nice to haves” in life.

By simply giving in to go hardcore.

I’ve seen no mention of any reward for accepting Musk’s bargain other than getting to stay employed by Twitter. But for how long? Until the ground rules change again?

We get to make choices every day. This one is a big one for the good people at Twitter. I don’t envy their position, even though for me the choice would be clear.

Inconvenient? Sure, but still clear.

Here’s a bit from my post I mentioned before…

“The journey we’re on at LifeUntucked is to tune in to those choices, many we don’t even realize we’re making. The goal is to choose intentional living as much and often as we can. To lighten our load, cut some strings, and live in an authentic way.”

It’s a choice. Your choice!

Oh, and probably one a billionaire like Elon Musk won’t even realize you have.

Choose well.

Be untucked.

p.s. Thanks for dropping by LifeUntucked®. If you found this post helpful be sure to share it with a friend.

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