Hard Work — Does It Really Pay?
Growing up, you might have been inundated with admonitions to “Work Hard!”
Or maybe you hear all the academics and self-help gurus and entrepreneurial icons talking about “grit”, “grind”, and “hustle”.
All the time, it’s “do”, “DO”, “DO!”
And what do you get for your struggles? Stress, fatigue, anxiety disorders…
There’s a popular myth in the entrepreneurial motivation scene that while you’re sleeping, someone else is doing, as though this is supposed to encourage you to grind harder.
If that makes you feel good and motivated and capable, good on you. Keep doing what you’re doing.
On a long enough timeline, all things crumble to dust.
“ My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
There is only the eternal now. The reward that you are promised for your hard work is a goal line carried by people who can run faster, and do so knowing the one secret of life:
There is no meaning to life other than to live; to be so engaged with joy and love in every moment that everything you do, whether paid for it or not, is play.
You’ve only this one life. Set your goals, and play on the way to them. Leave behind the expectations, and you open yourself to opportunity. Pursue all that you can with the same joy and love, take detours on the way just to explore, without desire for an outcome. Through this, you will find your way, and bring others along with you.