Why I worked 80 hours for vacation

Author

Jeff Sauer
September 13, 2025

In partnership with

Writing this before piranha fishing

I'm writing this from my office, but by the time you read it, I'll be piranha fishing in the Amazon.

No joke.

I'll be somewhere in the Brazilian jungle, completely off-grid, probably sweating through my shirt and wondering why I thought this was a good idea.

But here's the thing - getting to this point has been absolutely insane.

Seven steps forward, one step back, then a couple weird steps where I might have sprained my ankle.

Having a kid. Ending the digital nomad life. Buying my dream house. Selling my dream house. Being basically residence-less for a year while building another house. Business merger. My team merged with another team. Starting new brands. Consolidating brands.

Big ambitions, then big plans to not be ambitious.

It's been a complete whirlwind.

I've had so much stress leading up to this trip just to make sure there would be no stress ON the trip.

Working 60, 70, 80-hour weeks so I could be completely unplugged in the jungle. The irony isn't lost on me.

But here's what made it possible...

AI let me do things I never could have done before.

Write emails faster for multiple brands. Create entire sales pages. Build complete launches. Plan business operations. Manage my team from a distance.

Without AI, I wouldn't have been able to break away from all this stuff. I'd still be chained to my desk, manually doing everything, never able to take a real vacation.

Don't get me wrong - it's not all sunshine and rainbows.

AI didn't give me a 4-hour work week. Sometimes it creates more work. Those 80-hour weeks were real.

But at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

At least I can be my best version of myself instead of just surviving.

That's really what I want out of this whole AI thing.

Not to only work 4 hours a week - that's fantasy. But to be able to take a vacation and feel like I left everything on the line. To know I'm being my best self, not just grinding harder.

So if you're reading this and everything went according to plan, I'm somewhere in Brazil right now, completely disconnected, watching piranhas try to eat my bait.

And my business is running without me.

That's the real power of AI - not replacing you, but amplifying you so you can actually live your life.

To Your AI-First Success,
Jeff Sauer

P.S. If this email doesn't make sense, blame the pre-Amazon stress. I'll be back to normal programming when I return from the jungle.

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