There’s a slacker buzz phrase that’s become popular in the last year around the idea of working smart instead of working hard. It’s also called being lazy. The opposite of working smart would be working stupidly, yet hard work has never been stupid.
Hard work is admirable.
Hard work is not taking shortcuts.
Hard work means putting in the time and effort to succeed.
Hard work means thinking about what needs to be done.
Hard work is doing.
Working smart often refers to buying a quick-fix solution. Relying on a shortcut. Outsourcing to a faceless company five thousand miles away, so you don’t have to care about your customers.
Working smart refers to not doing hard work. In fact people are saying that: ‘Don’t work hard, work smart.’ Yet hard work is what it takes to succeed. Working smart—being lazy, being thoughtless, not caring—leads to failure.
Hard work, on the other hand, leaves you blissfully tired, happy, and satisfied when it pays off with success.
Kelly Hobkirk - teaching marketers how to harness strategy, goals, reality, and purpose to connect and do better work.
Kelly Hobkirk has been helping companies succeed in creative ways for nearly 25 years. His work has been featured in Time Magazine, and books by Rockport and Rotovision. Get exclusive articles when you sign up for his monthly newsletter.