A friend of mine made a genius observation the other day.
It’s one of those observations that kinda flies in the face of everything that you’ve been taught, probably your entire life. At least part of it.
Want to know what it is?
Of course you do.
He said:
You aren’t paid according to how hard you work.
You’re paid according to:
- How hard you are to replace
- How much value you deliver
- How many problems you solve
Focus on being able to produce results, and money will follow.
He’s absolutely right.
But wait, you might say. “I’ve been told my whole life to work hard. Hard work is how you succeed, right?”
No. Well, sorta. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that easy.
Working hard is an admirable quality.
But, working hard on the wrong things won’t do you any good either.
Millionaires understand that hard work isn’t what gets you paid. Working smart is how you get paid.
It’s how you get raises. How you get promoted.
Hard work means putting in a lot of time to accomplish a task. The emphasis is on sheer dedication and steadfast resolve. It means, come hell or high water, you get the task done.
Smart work takes a more strategic approach. It means focusing on accomplishing the right tasks in the right order. Efficiently. Effectively. Using optimal resources.
In other words, hard work is a brute force effort.
But smart work (in other words, solving problems efficiently, consistently doing the most important work first, and being the most irreplaceable MFer in the office) is where the money’s at.
Anyone can work hard. But not everyone can work smart.
Get the difference?
Working hard is fine, but working hard on the right things and in an efficient manner is a wicked combination.
Combine the two (hard work and smart work) and you’re ripe for success. But believe it or not, few of us successfully combine the two.
Moral of this story? The money is in working smart. It’s in thinking beyond the task at hand and understanding why it needs to be done, how it fits into the bigger picture, and why you’re there doing the job.
Figure that out and you’re a future millionaire.
