Narayana Murthy supports his 70-hour work week advice: 'Used to be in office at 6:20 am'

NR Narayana Murthy revealed that during his four decade professional career, he worked 70 hours every week and until 1994, worked for 85-90 hours every week since Infosys functioned six days a week during that timespan.

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy hit the headlines in October when he said in the 3one4 Capital's podcast "The Record" that if India's overall work productivity had to improve, then the youth must work for 70 hours every week.

Murthy's comments drew mixed reactions from leading personalities across various industries. While some agreed with his views, others felt that quality and not quantity of work was essential to deliver optimum results.

The 77-year-old has now come out in support of his views from a few months ago, saying that every country that he knew became successful only because of hard work. "I used to be in the office at 6:20 am and leave office at 8:30 pm and worked six days a week. I know every nation that became prosperous did so through hard work," Murthy told The Economic Times. 

Murthy further revealed that during his four decade professional career, he worked 70 hours every week and until 1994, worked for 85-90 hours every week since Infosys functioned six days a week during that timespan.

"During my entire 40-plus years of professional life, I worked 70 hours a week. When we had a six-day week - till 1994 - I used to work at least 85 to 90 hours a week. That has not been a waste," he added.

He further said that he was taught very early by his parents that the only way to escape poverty was by working hard. "My parents taught me very early in life that the only way we could hope to escape poverty was to work very, very hard - of course, assuming that one gets the best productivity from each hour of work," Murthy said.

Murthy's views in the podcast found support from the likes of Sajjan Jindal, Vinod Khosla and Suniel Shetty while others such as Harsh Goenka disagreed with his views.