We have all heard the saying:
Success isn’t about working hard. It’s about working smart!
That saying is appealing. It assures us that we can achieve whatever our definition of success is, without working hard; so long as we find the smart way to do it. It suggests that there are some silver bullets or tricks out there, which will allow us to enjoy the good life, without working hard.
However, in reality we need to work both smart and hard.
I am fortunate to know a number of extremely successful businesspeople. These are people who are happy, have great families and more money than they will ever need. In every case, they work smart. However, in every case they also work hard too – Damn hard!
Working smart and working hard
Richard Branson, with a net worth of billions, is an example of working hard and smart. Although in his sixties, he still works on projects all over the world, spanning dozens of different ventures. He works smart and he works hard too!
It is often said that today’s Internet millionaires / billionaires work smart and not hard, which is absolutely not the case either. Ev Williams, who founded Blogger which he sold to Google for millions, before then founding Twitter, is known for regularly working 12-14 hour days. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is another person with a reputation for working long hours and occasionally sleeping at his desk. Decades earlier, Microsoft’s Bill Gates was known for his incredible work ethic too. What about Apple’s Steve Jobs? Jobs has been battling serious health issues for a number of years, yet has never stopped working. The development of the iPhone and the iPad both happened after his health issues started. All the people I mentioned there, work smart AND hard!
Hard work by itself is not enough. My late father worked hard every day of his adult life, yet died with pennies. Working smart by itself is not enough either. I have met many people, who worked extremely smart, yet failed in their business because they refused to do the work required.
Always be on the look out for smarter, high leverage ways to work. But be extremely cautious of anyone telling you that you can have it all, without having to work hard.
Someone like that will probably lie about other things too!