If you aren’t willing to say “no” and prioritize, there isn’t anything else.

We all make choices based on our priority stack. I don’t judge anyone for having a different priority stack than mine. I do however try to let people know the tradeoffs.

Before I got into consulting, I fell into roles as an early hire when mostly new to the company managers, directors, CTOs were starting new initiatives.

I talk to them about how they manage priorities and work life balance. If I saw a situation like yours I personally wouldn’t accept the job.

In fact, I didn’t accept a job that would have paid significantly more than I was making to be over the cloud migration and strategy for a largish company. I didn’t want the stress.

Again, I’m not saying that a high stress early startup is not the right choice for you just be aware of the tradeoffs and have an exit plan before it starts affecting your mental and physical health and your family if you have one.

I’m 50 and while I still need to work, I don’t need to chase comp. I enjoy my relatively low stress job as a staff architect at a consulting company with unlimited PTO.