It's well known among successful entrepreneurs that a vital key to success is just to work harder than anyone else.

A few weeks ago Wayne Hemmingway, founder of fashion label Red or Dead, told me how he gets up at 5am to start the working day to be sure he can finish work at 5pm to spend time with his family - and he's not a struggling start-up entrepreneur any more, putting in long hours because he can't afford the staff; this is someone who has made it! Quite a few successful people have told me they start very early too.

On the other end of the scale I also know a lot of highly successful people who work until late. One friend of mine, Jonathan Elvidge, who's the founder of Red 5 and the Gadget Shop, shares my own habit of being a late worker. We've often exchanged emails, and occaisionally even phone calls, in the early hours of the morning when we're both still working with girlfriends long asleep.

So as long as you are putting in more work than anyone else, in order to win your success, it doesn't matter at which end of the day you do it. Or does it? As a late worker I often feel frowned upon by the early risers. They seem to lay claim to extra virtue by being up before anyone else, and tut-tut at those of us who start work later, ignoring the fact that we'll still be there when they're snoring.

But I love my late night working sessions with a glass of whisky, some music, and just my desk lamp illuminating my work in a dark room. I also love starting the next day slowly, not talking to anyone for the first hour or so, getting strong coffee (really strong) and fresh bread - all before I have to do any hard thinking or social interaction. I hate waking up to an alarm, and won't set one unless I have to be up really early.

My average day? In general I get up at 8.30am, work at home for an hour, then have a quick shower and go to the office where I'll grab some coffee and toast as I do my first catch up of the day. I'm there until about 7pm when I go home to have dinner, then I go to my home office at about 9pm and work until between midnight and 1am - or later if I'm working on a special project. Often in bed I'll listen to some podcasts, or read for a while, before going to sleep.

Does being up early really have anything to offer to beat that? What's it like to be in bed by 10pm? Won't it throw your body clock at weekends if you go out? Won't you miss out on parties, pubs and so on? Don't you miss out on a whisky with your late night work session?? ;)

Is there anything, anything at all, that could possibly make it worthwhile? And is it possible to convert a night-owl like me to operate as a lark?

There are gurus on the subject who say that there's no such thing as morning people or night people - that anyone can learn to get up at any time. So, I wonder, should I give this early-rising a go? See if it is better to be up early? More virtuous? Will it be more productive, or will I just collapse in a heap by mid afternoon and actually end up doing less work?

I'm toying with the idea of giving it a go as an experiment.

There's some advice on the net to help me decide, and then try it out:
Steve Pavlina's now famous post on How to become an early riser
How to become an early riser Part 2
How I became an early riser.
How to get up when your alarm goes off

I'll let you know if I do give it a go, and what revelations I experience as a result. Any suggestions or passing-on-of-experience is welcome!