I’ve received a fair number of people who’ve asked me what the catch phrase “Hard Work is Old School” that appears on this page means.
Put simply, it reflects the changing (or perhaps timeless, depending on how you look at it) attitude, if not reality, that those who work the hardest are NOT always the most successful. In fact, I could make a pretty compelling argument that those who work the hardest actually achieve less success than some others who tackle things from a different angle.
If I had to put into words the alternative to working harder, it would be working smarter. In my mind the “hard worker” sees the mighty oak tree rising before him in the forest and sharpens his axe, wipes his brow and prepares for the taxing labor of bringing down the tree one swing at a time.
The smart worker buys a chainsaw.
Or better yet, he finds someone with a chainsaw and pays them to cut it down while he is in town contracting the sale of the resulting wood.
My own business experiences have proven in many ways that “hard work” is often just a euphemism for being ineffective. I have often concluded a day of hard work only to look back and wonder just what it was that I accomplished that day- if anything at all.
Success is attained by those who not only find new ways of accomplishing familiar tasks but who also identify new markets and jump on them in an aggressive fashion.
Most people believe that to rise to the top of their chosen field takes “hard work” or in other words, lots of time and effort. This is sometimes the case. However, there are often multiple ways to leap ahead of all those toiling away and position yourself at the head of the class.
Smart workers make big bold steps and take calculated risks. They don’t care what their peers and competitors think as much as they care what their customers, patrons and followers think about them. Smart workers quickly identify profitable pursuits and separate them from menial tasks. They then identify what must be done and determine what can be outsourced to others and what must be tackled by themselves.
In short, smart workers place the importantance of the completed task over the mechanics of actually making it happen. The smart worker accepts that the tree must be felled and decides upon the quickest method of dropping it while the “hard worker” sees no other option but to buy an axe and start chopping.
Marathon runners run because those are the rules of the game. If I just needed to cross the finish line as fast as possible…I’d call a cab.
If you want to make hard work old school, focus on results and not the process.
