There is one irrefutable reality about success that you absolutely must understand. If you do not work hard, you will not be successful. That is not to say that there is a direct relationship between hard work and success. Hard work doesn’t guarantee your success but if you don’t work hard, you’ve got no chance. Truth is that hard work will beat skill every time if skill doesn’t work hard because there will always be someone with skill trying to work harder than you.
I’m not saying that working smarter, working on improving your knowledge, working on improving your strategy, working every angle you can find to gain an advantage aren’t important. What I’m saying is the key word at every turn is work. Do the work and all of the above will become reality on the journey.
You can have all the knowledge and skill in the world, but it is the work, the full out effort every day use of that knowledge and talent that ultimately gives you the benefit of skill and wisdom. It grows day by day from use and repetition and evaluation and application. Reality is that you are not going to start at the top. You can get there but it comes from laying another perfect brick in your wall everyday as you stay focused on using everything you’ve learned, everything you’ve practiced, every instinct and perception and awareness you’ve planted in your subconscious through your never-ending progressive work that takes you to the top.
More importantly, it is the continued work effort that keeps you on top. There is no autopilot setting on success. If you don’t keep moving forward, you start going backwards.
The best advantage of hard though is this, when you are working hard, you’re always ready. Ready to take advantage of every opportunity, whenever it crosses your path. It is often said that luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparation. Well, if you haven’t figured it out by now, preparation is defined as hard work.