The last umpteen number of years have seen quotes similar to this one popping up all over the place. To be sure, it strikes a cord with most of us. After all, how many of us want to work harder? Wouldn’t it be great just to work smarter?
The idea of this affirmation seems to be one of an “either/or” choice, which is misleading.
It’s almost as if it’s somehow impossible, wrong, or undesirable to work smarter and harder. Why not do both?
We’ve gotten to the point in western societies where we eschew hard work, especially manual labor, in favor of working smarter, as if the two are somehow mutually exclusive. We tend to look down on the “grunt workers” who dig ditches, build roadways, lay brick, clean out septic tanks, or cut trees.
Instead, we admire IT specialists, software engineers, hedge fund managers, online influencers and entrepreneurs, and the white collar jobs where we get to supervise a number of other people who work in cubicles.
Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.
Proverbs 12:11
I am nearly 50 years older than my teenage grand kids. Yet, I can outwork them outside any day. The reason for this is simple: I will do hard work, physical work, while the teens are inside playing computer games. They hate manual labor. They don’t live with me, so I have very little opportunity to train them in the way which they should go.
And we make a bad problem even worse by feeding our families junk food and enabling their lazy behaviors. Trying to instill a hard work ethic in young people these days has never been more challenging.
But Mike Rowe’s “Dirty Jobs” candidates oftentimes make far more money than the white collar workers we think of as “more professional.” Those YouTube millionaire influencers are like professional athletes: People admire and envy them, but the vast majority of us will never achieve that level of competence, status, influence, or money.
I have a novel idea: Why not be willing to work hard and smart? Working hard develops a good work ethic, while working smart helps you do your hard work more efficiently.