Ryan Serhant starts work at 4:30 a.m.—he says most people don’t achieve their dreams because ‘what they really want is just to be lazy’

In today’s ultra-competitive business world, being a leader can feel like running a never-ending marathon. That might be why some executives, like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, work every day of the week—including holidays—to stay ahead.

Ryan Serhant operates from that same all-in philosophy.

The social media mogul, Netflix star, and founder of real estate firm SERHANT has built a reputation not just for selling high-end homes to millionaires, but for treating his time with near-mathematical precision. 

He wakes up at 4:30 a.m. each morning, spending the first hour answering emails. After getting a 90-minute workout in, he starts his day with meetings and client work that sometimes run as late as 11 p.m.

And he’s the first to admit he has little semblance of work-life balance.

“I definitely have a problem, like I definitely live to work,” Serhant, a married father of one, said. “Even when I’m traveling, I get so excited to come back to my command station.”

For many workers, achieving balance has become increasingly important. In fact, it was the highest-ranking factor for talent when evaluating current or future jobs, according to Randstad’s 2025 Workmonitor report. It was the first time in the study’s 22-year history that work-life balance surpassed pay as a top incentive.

But Serhant argued the debate over work-life balance isn’t as simple. Many people struggle because they “lie to themselves,” he said.

“I think the easiest person to lie to is the person in the mirror,” Serhant added. “People are not honest with their goals. They think they want to get married, they think they want X, they think they want Y, but what they really want is to do nothing. What they really want is just to be lazy. What they really want is just to win the lottery.”

Ryan Serhant’s schedule strategy: treating time as money—literally

Years ago, before being known for his CEO title and media brand, Serhant realized if he wanted to reach his goals, he had to reel in his day-to-day life.

“I did a time audit, and I just saw how much money—so time—I was spending on things where I should just be making an investment,” Serhant told Fortune.

That realization became the foundation of his schedule, where time is money—literally. He plans his days on a scale where one minute equals $1. Multiplying 24 hours by 60 minutes leaves $1,440 in each day. After accounting for sleep and meals, he arrives at what he calls his 1,000-minute rule.

The system—that’s studied by Harvard Business School students—encourages intentional allocation of time, while also centering perspective. If your boss yells at you for five minutes, that’s just $5 gone. Does that small price justify throwing away the rest of your day—$995?

For Serhant, goal setting is his north star. In 2026, that includes scaling SERHANT as an AI-first brokerage and continuing to expand its footprint across new states. And even if he doesn’t reach them, he said it’s important to always move your career forward on your own terms:

“You’ll have stressful days. You’ll be exhausted, you’ll be sad, you’ll cry, you’ll get sick. All the things in life that are going to happen to you will still happen, but at least you know what you’re marching forward towards. It’ll be the beat of your own drum versus someone else’s song.”

Following this system helped propel Serhant’s status as a top real estate broker. His firm—which includes nearly 1,500 agents and nearly 200 full-time employees—closed more than $6 billion in sales last year alone.

Billionaire business leaders like Jeff Bezos and Reid Hoffman agree: work-life balance isn’t a reality for success

Serhant is not alone in believing that people aspiring to success may have to forgo a proper work-life balance. 

LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman has long believed that anyone wanting to pursue entrepreneurship in particular will have to dedicate themselves to their idea to get it off the ground.

“If I ever hear a founder talking about, ‘This is how I have a balanced life,’ they’re not committed to winning,” Hoffman told Stanford University’s How to Start a Startup class in 2014. “The only really great founders are [the ones who are] like, ‘I am going to put literally everything into doing this.’”

Amazon cofounder Jeff Bezos echoed this sentiment in an appearance last year at Italian Tech Week.

“I don’t love the word ‘balance’ because it implies a tradeoff,” Bezos said. “I’ve often had people ask me, ‘How do you deal with work-life balance?’ And I’ll say ‘I like work-life harmony because if you’re happy at home, you’ll be better at work. If you’re better at work, you’ll be better at home.’ These things go together. It’s not a strict tradeoff.”

Even former President Barack Obama has conceded that the path to success will require you to sometimes prioritize work over life.

Speaking on The Pivot podcast, he said: “If you want to be excellent at anything—sports, music, business, politics—there’s going to be times of your life when you’re out of balance, where you’re just working, and you’re single-minded.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com