Work Smart, Not Hard

What does that mean, to work smart, not hard? Does it mean to find the best way to do something? It will most likely make your life simpler? For me, it always meant, find the path of least resistance. Find the easiest way. At face value, it doesn’t seem so bad. As a matter of fact, it seems pretty good, like sound advice that everyone should take. Sadly, it might not be as safe as you think. I took that advice and took it to heart and paid the price in years.

I’ve always been pretty quick mentally. Maybe it was to make up for my lack of athleticism but I never had to put too much effort into scholastic advancement. If I saw it enough times not only could I remember the information, but I could also apply it to differing circumstances that seemed to fit the same mold. I didn’t have a straight “A” brain with no studying but with minimal effort, I could stay in the “B+” to “A-” range.

Elementary, middle, and high school, while socially not the easiest, were no issue academically. Even undergrad was survivable while spending all my nights up and out. I probably could have done better in organic chemistry but I figured if I could get the B+ and catch up on some sleep, it wasn’t the worst thing ever.

It was graduate school that started teaching me lessons that I was a bit too slow to learn.  Academically, I could survive. I came in lacking information but once I got the hang of it, I was fine. Wasn’t at the top of the class or anything, but I wasn’t doing too badly. The problem was that I lacked a whole lot of work ethic that was a requirement for a PhD in organic chemistry. (Though I slept through most of it, I really did like the class. It was just crazy early for someone going to bed at 3 am.)

When it came to experimental research, I had the worst time. I would come up with a great idea, and watch it fail. Then I would try something else that seemed the obvious solution and it would fail again! It didn’t make sense! After a few months, I realized that colleagues of mine seemed to be getting good results but mine were always slow and pitiful. What was going wrong?

It finally occurred to me that all the people who seemed to be getting the most results didn’t seem “smarter” than me.  Something else was contributing to their success that I was missing. They did seem to always be working but I figured that was because they needed to throw the kitchen sink at their stuff to make it work. I figured it made much more sense to have a solid theory so you could decrease the amount of stuff you had to do. (Do I seem arrogant? Don’t’ worry. That won’t last long…) These colleagues finished, defended their theses and left. So did the class after them. How do I know? I watched them all go. Can’t think of anything more humbling for a guy like me. My “smarts” were worth nothing. I couldn’t produce results because I didn’t have the consistent action necessary to make anything of my “bright ideas”. I wasn’t practicing my craft like there was no tomorrow so I could be the expert I needed to be to earn a PhD. I was doing as little as I could.

So I’ll give you some advice that you should definitely take. “Work smart AND hard.” People tend to think that the memorable people in our world are people born into talent. We look at their talent as if it were something we could never attain, as if it were something in their genes. In reality, the people who are most consistently successful are the ones who have become obsessive about their craft and have practiced it at a cost.

Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers, has done the science to back up my claims. He refers to people who don’t fit into our normal understanding of success as outliers. One of the common themes in the book is the “10,000 hour rule”. The idea is that greatness requires a lot of time – approximately 10,000 hours. He uses examples such as Bill Gates and the Beatles. Bill Gates put in programming time on a computer he had access to when he was in high school. The Beatles put in time in Hamburg, Germany performing over 1,200 times. He doesn’t suggest that talent has no bearing at all; merely that talent or genius alone is not enough. The time you put in will show. Obviously, if you like doing something and have a knack for it, you’ll be more likely to put the time in.

What’s the point of all this? Talent is great. Real work is greater. It will always be. Talent is great but it won’t make you famous and it definitely won’t make you successful. You gotta put in the work. So forget working smart as opposed to working hard. DO BOTH. It’s what the greats would have done.

What I think

After reading this post of motivation today – real hard|smart work is the best that you can do with every situation = life fulfillment. Does anyone not want to leave a legacy? Does anyone not want to have regrets? Do these things written here by this gentleman and I in the process but not far off. For life is roller coaster of emotions and struggles but as I have read in outliers and other books that the most growth that you will experience is when you are pushed to your highest of high stresses or situations and your lowest of lows when dreams and plans do not work out as you had thought.

Lets do a combo of both each and everyday!

live.love.life

-jmm