VALUE: After Hours (S07 E12): 996 Work Ethic and Build Speed in China

During their recent episode, Taylor and Carlisle discussed 996 Work Ethic and Build Speed in China. Here’s an excerpt from the episode:

Jake: Yeah. What do you think about this concept of 9-9-6 that we kept hearing about?

Tobias: Well, I think the Chinese are real capitalists and they’re very, very ambitious and they have this plan– China that they’re ambitious for China, but they’re personally ambitious as well. And to get what they want, they’re going to have to work 9-9-6, which is 09:00 AM to 09:00 PM six days a week. And so, that’s the way they work.

Jake: And it’s like a badge of honor. They all wear it proudly. Everyone just expects, like that’s what you’re going to work like that you want to like make your life better, you got 9-9-6.

Tobias: And if someone calls you at 01:00 AM in the morning, you just answer the call and you welcome the call. You don’t want to wait until tomorrow to hear whatever they’re going to say.

Jake: It’s true. [chuckles] One thing I did find interesting, and this goes back to the contrast between Japan and China and this 1,200-year-old Shrine. We toured a property developer in China, one of the few to survive this current real estate correction which has been quite the winnowing process. But we toured one of their building sites. The houses are nice looking, they’re expensive, they’re not much different than some luxury in price per square foot in the US, I felt like, but there’s like this brittle feeling of–

I just want to say cheapness to the built quality. Even though it looks nice, it hints at this impermanence. It needed to attract a high-end clientele who wanted to live there, but I wouldn’t expect it to still be there in 10 years. Maybe it won’t be. Maybe that’s just the expectation that they’ll need the land for something else. I don’t know. But you see this–

They can build, they’ll identify zone, get the permits, construct and sell a huge complex in less than two years. And here, I don’t even think you’d get the permits available in two years for the size of this project. They’re moving so much faster. It boggles the mind to be honest with you.

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