How I Did More By Doing Less

Because we all feel better when we can drop the façade for a bit.

Michel Kana, Ph.D
4 min readFeb 18, 2021
Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash

Have you ever got something by doing nothing?

Most of us believe that the harder we work the more we receive. What do we receive? More money, security, social status. What about happiness?

In my life, I spent a lot of time achieving more by doing even more. One university degree was not enough, I got several of them and later a Ph.D. Speaking one language was not enough, I learned many additional ones. Working full-time was not enough, I founded my own startup.

Doing more became a never-ending story. Several years ago I decided to take a new job and to do only that job. I was quite excited and persuaded that I will be doing less.

That was an illusion. Inside the job I was over-performing, going the extra mile. Apart from my technical job responsibilities, I turned to become a personal coach, listener, mentor, life advisor, and leadership builder. This required me to control my emotions and to show vulnerability and build trust.

This was too much. I was doing too much again. Things stopped working.

I had the feeling to endanger other colleague’s interests and career goals. I was cursed for being too good…

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Michel Kana, Ph.D

Husband & Dad. Mental health advocate. Top Medium Writer. 20 years in IT. AI Expert @Harvard. Empowering human-centered organizations with high-tech.