CZ on the Hidden Cost of Building Binance: "People Underestimate the Physical Demand"

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao "CZ", has pulled back the curtain on what the early years of building Binance actually looked like — revealing that the relentless pace and physical toll on the team was far greater than anything visible from the outside.The question came from Kevin of Akta and contributor to Indonesia Blockchain Week, who asked what behind-the-scenes story from the journey would completely change how people understand Binance's rise — something never made public before.CZ said the single most underappreciated aspect of those early years was the sheer volume of hard work the team put in. Team members regularly slept in the office. Because a crypto exchange operates around the clock, the work never stopped — and neither did the pressure. Staff were on call at all times, and CZ himself said he was constantly reachable on his phone regardless of where he was or what he was doing.He was candid that while the book touches on hard work, it is genuinely difficult to convey the full magnitude of what that period demanded — both mentally and physically. As the team grew larger and more structured in later years, that intensity naturally leveled out. But in the early stages, he said, the personal cost was significant and largely invisible to the outside world.CZ to Young People: "There Are More Opportunities Now Than at Any Point in History"In a message directed at younger people navigating uncertainty in their careers and in Web3, CZ offered a straightforward but pointed piece of advice — stop spending the majority of your free time on short-term distractions, and start investing it in learning.The question came from community member Supers, who noted that many young people today feel overwhelmed by competition, unsure of their direction, and discouraged by the sense that the most successful people in the industry were exceptional from the start. He asked CZ, who described himself as an ordinary student in his early years, to offer some guidance.CZ pushed back on the idea that the current environment is more difficult than previous ones. He said he firmly believes there are more opportunities available today than at any point in the past — and that the pace at which those opportunities are emerging is only accelerating.His advice was practical. Young people, he said, do not need to dedicate every waking hour to self-improvement — but they should be honest about how they are spending their free time. Cutting the proportion of time spent on social media, gaming, and passive socializing from the majority of their day to a fraction of it, and replacing it with deliberate learning, can produce compounding results over time.He pointed to youth as a biological advantage that should not be wasted. The brain's capacity to absorb and rewire around new information is significantly greater when young, he noted, and that window should be used aggressively. He acknowledged that this capacity diminishes with age — something he said he experiences himself.On skills, CZ said that while a foundational understanding of technology remains valuable, it is no longer necessary for everyone to become a deep technical specialist. AI is rapidly taking over the most complex coding work, he noted. What matters more is developing at least one strong core skill — whether in marketing, finance, business development, or another discipline — and building outward from there.He closed with a broader point about the pace of value creation in the modern era. Companies can scale from zero to a billion dollars far faster today than they could a generation ago, and that speed is still increasing. The implication, he said, is that the sheer number of people who will build genuinely transformative companies from scratch is going to keep growing — and young people who are willing to put in the work are better positioned than any generation before them to be among them.