Five Reasons Why Hard Work Hardly Works
So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that’s on the worst day of my life.
–Peter Gibbons, Office Space
In your own life and scattered among the anecdotes of your friends and family, you have no doubt run across times when hard work didn’t pay off. All that time you studied did not turn out to an A on a test. The extra hours spent at work never translated to a raise. Working hard at a friendship turned to disappointment.
It’s so hard to fathom because we have been taught–indoctrinated, more likely–that hard work creates success. The fact that such an unwritten law turns out to be false is almost as hard as the circumstance itself.
So, now, why doesn’t hard work payoff?
Hard work is not smart work
Working hard only means that you are working and it is difficult. In and of itself, struggling does not mean you’ll improve results or succeed in your venture. (In fact, as we’ll see, it increases the probability of failure.) If you are working hard and succeeding little, you need to stop what you’re doing and analyze why you success is so low. Then discover a new, more effortless path to the goal.
Hard work is not preparation
Lincoln said that if he had four hours to cut down a tree, he’d spend three hours sharpening the ax. But that’s not what most of us do. We beat the tree senseless with a dull ax until the tree collapses… or we do.
Hard work is not happy work
You accomplish more when you love what you do. When you’re happy with your work, routine, physically-taxing and tough jobs become easy.
Hard work is not self-reliance.
We kid ourselves when we believe that if we work hard for someone that our efforts will result in equal rewards or returns. When you work for someone else you face a slew of alternate agendas, many of which directly conflict with your own goals. Working hard for someone else is hardly working.
Hard work isn’t good work.
We usually feel pretty good with ourselves after working for hours on a project. But working hard on a project, doesn’t mean that the work is good.
What about you? Do you have an example of why hard work doesn’t work?
is one of my favorite financial books of all time. It's an allegory about a guy who has a terrible job, and how he overcomes challenges to achieve his dreams.
hard work does pay off to a certain extent. With changes in South Africa, hard work is not required for a raise. you just have to be black, thats it. other race groups a just challenged by their opponents being black. they can even create a post to let a black person stand on higher ground, leaving those who actually work hard remain subordinates. therefore our country is failing. the leading party is going into fashion selling jackets instead. so what is hard work really??
I think any time you attach your future to a system or bureaucracy the likelihood of it being gamed for one group, or another increases.