Countless times during my management consulting career Ive recited the words of Sun Tsu, the author of the classical Chinese treatise, The Art of War.

In a telling passage, he advises: Victory with exhaustion means defeat in the battle to come.

Its a neat way of saying, sure you might win, but if the price you pay is utter exhaustion, youll be a sitting duck (or is that a Beijing or Peking duck?) for the next foe that crosses your path.

These are wise words, and to be truthful, there are dozens of times that Ive worked myself ragged, racking up a bunch of bucks and acquiring not a few laurels, but each time necessitated a great deal of recuperation.

So, the work ethic is peachy, but you have to question the dictum many of us heard as kids: Hard work never killed anyone!

Sun Tsu might differ, which brings me to my point.

As I was skiing the other day, and then strolling at the beach today, I wondered, What would happen if we put play first, and work, second?

Would life, as we know it, perish?

Would we all end up depleting our IRAs and 401ks, without remorse, dooming us to eat cat food in our old age?

Something tells me that theres a big secret the rich know: You wont get very far from an early grave if you work relentlessly without getting adequate rest and recuperation.

In other words, you need plenty of play.

Play energizes you, enables you to see the big picture, and get beyond the resentment that we can easily feel when we have to work long and late on a project.

Play builds muscle, if its the active sort, and this burns calories, so we get fitter, it shows, and our self-esteem and life expectancy increase.

In fact, theres hardly an argument that you can summon that will convince me that play isnt essential to happiness. Sure, you can call it names: juvenile, frivolous, wasteful, but then youll just sound like a peevish schoolmarm who never had a belly laugh or a serious romance in her life.

My tip is simple: Dont wait to play until you think youve earned it.

Weve all earned it, simply by being human and by facing the challenges this status implies.