Never underestimate the power of working your ass off
Monday, May 21, 2007 - posted by hellomynameisscott at 4:43 AM
I believe the following sentence is a myth:“Work smart, not hard.”
No, no, no, no.
Here’s the deal:
There’s no secret.
There’s no formula.
There’s no quick answer.
There’s no get rich in 90 days.
There’s no six-step process.
There's no seven-step system.
There’s no single way to do it.
It’s not about luck.
It’s not about serendipity.
It’s not (only) about whom you know and who knows you.
It’s not about how good or fast or smart or cool or funny you are.
The ONLY attribute that is 100% guaranteed to make you successful in any endeavor is HARD WORK.
Hard work.
Hard work.
Hard work.
(Did I say hard work?)
THE CHALLENGE IS: a lot of people don’t want to hear those two words.
For example.
Other night I was giving a talk to a publishers assocation about developing web presence.
At the beginning of our workshop, I told the group that my website gets 35,000 hits a day.
They gasped.
Then, for the next hour, at least seven people kept asking the same question: “Yeah, but how do you get all these people to come to your site?!”
Like there’s a definitive answer to that question.
Unfortunately, considering our A.D.D, quick fix, microwavable, hyper speed, downloadable culture, most businesspeople want that kind of success immediately.
Like the beloved Veruca Salt who sang, “I want the world! I want the whole wide world. I want it, I want it, I want it NOW!”
But it doesn’t work that way.
And that’s why I finally (at the end of the speech) answered the burning question by saying, “OK, do you REALLY wanna know how I get so much organic traffic to my website?”
“Yes!” they audience demanded.
“Because I work my ass off.”
The room fell silent.
Like I’d revealed some sort of magic secret to success.
And that was the end of my speech.
SO, HERE’S YOUR WAKE UP CALL: after thousands of years of existence, the only secret of success that has, and never will change, is HARD WORK.
If you interviewed one hundred super successful people, I bet 99 of them would attribute their success to hard work.
Because all things being equal: hard work is always the best answer.
Now, does that mean you shouldn’t work smart?
Of course not! Working smart is also essential.
But not on its own.
You need to work smart. AND long. AND hard.
For a while.
And eventually when you’ve paid your dues and you’re raking it in and you’re starting to get kind of tired, THEN you can work less hard.
Me? I'm not there yet. Not by a long shot.
So I guess for now, it’s all about hard work.
Never underestimate the power of working your ass off.
LET ME ASK YA THIS...
Is "working smart, not hard" a myth?
LET ME SUGGEST THIS...
Post your argument here!
* * * *Scott Ginsberg
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Labels: commitment, consistency, working really hard
Hey Scott
Powerful post.
I had a similar 'A ha' last week at a 2 day Keller Williams University course I was at.
It's not enough to be talented; it's not enough to be an entrepreneur. You need to be purposeful, have systems, focus, and work really really hard.
Scott,
Thanks for this one; I have to keep reminding myself of this, because at heart, I am a sluggard.
Thomas Jefferson had this one pegged years ago: "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."
The thunderous roar you hear overhead eminates from the standing ovation you're receiving from Des Moines, Iowa.
Great post! Now I've got to get back to work.
So very true! And, kind of like the secret to losing weight is eating right and exercising. Heck, if it was that easy, well, everyone would be doing it.
I think you need to work hard but work SMART! You need to work hard at the RIGHT things because if you work hard at the WRONG things you still won't get anywhere.
Awesome post Scott. It's funny... I have people (aspiring organizers/speakers) emailing me wanting me to tell them how I built my business.
I tell 'em nine years of hard work, that's how. :)
Great blog today.
Monica
Found your blog through Phil's site and I'm enjoying it!
This was a great post! There is no such thing as an overnight success. For the individual who "supposedly" acheives this phenomenon(in the opinion of onlookers)...It is one VERY, very, long night!
Hard work, perserverance & courage are critical traits & habits of successful people who create successful endeavors.
Great post. My father in law is a multi millionaire and enjoys all life has to offer. He is 66 years old, still a practicing physician, and as he did 40 years ago, still starts his work day at 6 am and ends at 11 pm. My inspiration.
"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."
Winston Churchill
and my favorite:
"I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle-victorious. Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile."
Vincent Lombardi
Actually, you need to KNOW what work to do. "Hard work" alone is not enough. I can work my ass off spending 10 hrs a day, 5 days a week making little rivets with raw muscle power and selling them off and yet not get a whole heap of money out of it, even if I did it for 3 YEARS. Hard work is a good thing, and one can achieve things with it, yet it alone is not enough to amke great achievements. I want to ask you. You say:
"It’s not about luck.
It’s not about serendipity.
It’s not (only) about whom you know and who knows you.
It’s not about how good or fast or smart or cool or funny you are."
First off, what if I know nobody -- which is exactly my present situation? Is that a much greater stumbling block than lack of hard work? Since you say not "only" about it. I'll assume no, since you emphasize hardwork the most.
As for the other items on your list, they are not useless items, they all have roles to play, you can't just dismiss them in favor of "hard work", they all go hand-in-hand, and the more of them you have (PLUS the work) the better it will go.
If "success" means simply making any amount of money or any amount of progress, then yes, "hard work" _is_ "100% guaranteed" to do it. The rivetmaker I mentioned makes _some_ money with his hard work. But it is far from great heaps of money. If making lots and lots of money, or actually achieving a goal completely, is what you want, "hard work" alone is not enough, just as none of the other items you mention alone are enough or even the most important.
In other wrods: WHAT work did you do to be a millionaire? HOW did you find out where and when to apply it? I bet if you dug at it more you'd see that it was not just hard work that got you where you were, but knowledge, wisdom, faith, and several other things all piled together.
"Work smart, not hard" is a half-myth. The other half-myth is "work hard, not smart". One needs both. In fact, one needs even more. One needs faith and wisdom in addition to "smart" work (although those might be rolled in with all that.).
Although the 5-days-a-week/10-hours-a-day making rivets by hand might get you some nice muscles so you don't need a gym so much :) And burn off all that fat :) But lots of riches? Doubtful. Really doubtful.
Your post, putting it all on "hard work", is really no more true the other claims that "luck" or "smarts" or "relationships" or whatever are what it's all about. It's a mix of things and the characteristics of the individual also play a role. My example provides the logic behind this.