The 30-year-old billionaire begins her day at 5:30 a.m. with two consecutive sessions at fitness studio Barry’s Bootcamp. “I’ve gotten lazy; it used to be triple,” she told British newspaper Metro. In April, she marked her 3,000th class at the gym, posting photos on Instagram with the caption “Discipline > Sleep.”
Afterward, she heads to the 25,000-square-foot office of Passes, her content creator monetization platform founded in 2022. She typically works there from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. without a lunch break, relying on Uber Eats deliveries during meetings.
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World’s youngest self-made woman billionaire, Lucy Guo. Photo courtesy of Guo’s Instagram |
Her workday often extends past midnight, either continuing from home or occasionally going partying with friends until 2 a.m. “I could theoretically work until midnight, and then I could go out to the club until 2 a.m., and then I could go to sleep, and then wake up at like 6 a.m. and do Barry’s,” she told CNBC.
Despite her demanding schedule, Guo insists she has balance, noting she feels she has more hours in a day because she needs little sleep. She said others can achieve work-life balance even while working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., as they can still enjoy dinners or nights out afterwards.
“If anyone thinks that’s not work-life balance, I don’t know what to say because you literally have 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. to hang out with your friends, and then you sleep from 2 a.m. to nine,” she said. “That’s seven hours of sleep, which is more than enough.”
Guo does not take traditional rest days but gives herself a block of free time on weekends. Even while working “90-hour workweeks,” she said she still makes “one to two hours” for family and friends, according to Fortune. “You should always find time for that, regardless of how busy you are.”
Asked about her motivation, she said she once tried “retirement” but found it unsatisfying. “Honestly, I still feel the same as that little girl, like my life pre-money and post-money, it hasn’t really changed that much.”
The young founder embodies the Silicon Valley ethos of working around the clock, echoing China’s “996” work culture. The schedule, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week, has faced widespread criticism for harming worker wellbeing, with protests and accusations of “modern slavery,” according to Wired.
Reflecting on this, Guo shared advice for startup founders, stressing the need for relentless effort in the early stages. “In general, when you’re first starting your company, it’s near impossible to do it without doing that [996], like you’re going to need to work like 90-hour work weeks to get things off the ground,” she told CNBC.
However, Guo also acknowledged that such intensity is not the only route to success. “If you opt to start a tech company, you’re gonna be working those hours in the beginning. If you’re like, main method is doing it via investing, you’re not gonna be working those hours.”
Guo co-founded Scale AI, an AI data labeling company, with Alexandr Wang, 28, the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, in 2016. She left two years later due to what she described as “disagreements around products and sales,” but kept her stake of around 5%. When Meta acquired 49% of Scale AI earlier this year, her shares surged in value to $1.25 billion.