I disagree. Most small business owners in fact work at least 60 hrs/wk.
There's a tremendous difference between work that is well integrated with family life (as self-employment can be) and work that's away from everyone else. Indeed if he is lucky he'd have his spouse helping with business administration.....
I think the chances are that if you are working 60hrs a week you are doing it wrong.
Working that amount of time for a month to power through a launch or get something done is fine.
However if you are working that amount of time week in, week out and have a family which you actually want to spend time with then it doesn't really matter where you work. You could work in your families living room. You would still be turned off to them for 8-12 hours a day.
If your single, this may be the life for you. If you work with your partner it may doable at times.
Realistically though, most people will not need to put in this much time. If they are there are a number of things they can do to reduce this time. You really do not need to work yourself into the ground to make a good living.
The first thing is "defining work." When you work for someone else, a lot of things you do on personal time are entirely separate from work. When you work for yourself, there are opportunities for more integration.
Maybe that time blogging ends up being an extra way you spend promoting your business? Maybe that time spent on facebook ends up at least in part being marketing time? Certainly that time spent reading industry magazines is work time.
If your spouse is helping with the financial management, you have time that you'd talk about household budgets and stuff that will often bleed over into impromptu family business meetings.
And so forth.
I don't think you can entirely compare 40 hrs in a cube with 60 hrs for yourself. They are in fact two entirely different things.
For example, I generally try to spend about 20 hrs per week in heavy engineering and development, no more (usually in 4 hr chunks if possible). Maybe 10-15 hrs per week doing light development and tech support in small doses scattered throughout the rest of the day.
On my afternoon breaks I play with the kids. Sure I probably work 60 hrs/wk but I can do a lot of it when it is most convenient for everyone else, and so ensure that it isn't as you describe.
There's a tremendous difference between work that is well integrated with family life (as self-employment can be) and work that's away from everyone else. Indeed if he is lucky he'd have his spouse helping with business administration.....