How do I know if my brutal job is worth it?

The hours are inhuman, you are running on fumes, and you honestly cannot tell if you are building something or just surviving to the next deal. That fog is what exhaustion does. When you never get to lift your head, every day looks the same and the future disappears. So lift your head, even a little. Ask yourself plainly: is this a hard season with an end you can see, or a life with no exit? Those are very different, and the answer changes everything. A brutal stretch that teaches you and ends is worth enduring. A treadmill with no off switch is not. You cannot think clearly on no sleep, so protect even a small piece of rest and use it to get honest with yourself. Talk to someone who left this world and someone who stayed. Then decide on purpose, not by default. Surviving is not the same as building, and you deserve to know which one you are doing.