Hard Work

Most people will do what’s easiest and avoid hard work — and that’s precisely why you should do the opposite. The superficial opportunities of life will be attacked by hordes of people seeking what’s easy. The much tougher challenges will usually see a lot less competition and a lot more opportunity.

Strong challenge is commonly connected with strong results. Sure you can get lucky every once in a while and find an easy path to success. But will you be able to maintain that success, or is it just a fluke? Will you be able to repeat it? Once other people learn how you did it, will you find yourself overloaded with competition?

When you discipline yourself to do what is hard, you gain access to a realm of results that are denied everyone else. The willingness to do what is difficult is like having a key to a special private treasure room.

The nice thing about hard work is that it’s universal. It doesn’t matter what your job role is — hard work can be used to achieve positive long-term results regardless of the specifics.

We used this same philosophy in building this company. We seek people that are not easily found, with skills that are not easily acquired.  I try to address the unusual needs of our clients that other people don’t and bypass the low hanging fruit. We strive to understand the new roads that our clients are cutting through the frontier of product development even when they are not yet ready to define those roads. We do lots of reading and research. We find exceptional people and must accept the fact that sometimes those people are taken from us by our clients. We do not get paid for our time, but just as each of you are paid, we are paid for our accomplishments. This is not easy work, but being anything but average requires hard work.

Hard work pays off. When someone tells you otherwise, beware the sales pitch for something “fast and easy” that’s about to come next. The greater your capacity for hard work, the more rewards fall within your grasp. The deeper you can dig, the more treasure you can potentially find.

Being healthy is hard work. Finding and maintaining a successful relationship is hard work. Raising kids is hard work. Getting organized is hard work. Setting goals, making plans to achieve them, and staying on track is hard work. Even being happy is hard work.