Reddit's Alexis Ohanian regrets not developing this soft skill: 'Would've been 10 times more productive’

Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, is married to tennis superstar Serena Williams.

If there was one soft skill that Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian wished he had developed when he was in his twenties, it was his discipline. Opening up during a recent podcast, the 41-year-old tech executive said that he would have been even more successful had he mastered it in his younger years.

“When I had free time, when I had more youthful vigour, if I had more discipline, I would have been 10 times more productive,” Ohanian said. “That’s one thing I would give advice to myself at 20 about.”

Citing an example, he said that as a student and young entrepreneur, Ohanian stayed up for hours trying to finish work that would have taken him 20 minutes the next day had he gone to bed at a reasonable time, CNBC Make It reported. He had built Reddit right after college and sold it a year later for $10 million.

Although at the time, his drive was fueled by a strong desire to have his mother -- who was battling stage four terminal brain cancer -- see him become a successful CEO. Now, however, Ohanian said he recognises that his lifestyle was not sustainable. It was unhealthy and contributed to stress and burnout, he added.

“When I was in my 20s, I was perpetually in ‘CEO Mode’ and could never find a healthy work/life balance,” he wrote on LinkedIn last year. “Plus, I never thought about what I ate, drank, or [smoked] ... how often I exercised, etc.”

But things changed after the birth of Ohanian's now 7-year-old daughter with tennis superstar Serena Williams.

“When we had Olympia, I knew I needed to change everything so I can be around for as long as possible for her,” CNBC Make It quoted him as saying. “I began a discipline of daily routines to help me move towards my goals, regardless of if I’m at home or on the road: cold plunges, working out, goal-setting, etc.”