Council Post: Are You Sure You’re Ready To Work Hard?

What does it mean to work hard?

For some, if hard work doesn’t take a physical toll, it’s not hard work. A different, popular understanding of hard work is that it demands a lot of time. Someone working long hours is “working hard.”

When I took the leap to go from modeling to start my building maintenance company, I was working 17 hours a day. I had four other jobs to pay the bills. So check and check on the “hard work” list of attributes.

What I learned though is that the heart of hard work is sacrifice. Looking at hard work as only what you’re putting into achieving a goal papers over the fact that you’re giving up – – a lot. Underneath hard work is the demand that you make sacrifices to reap an uncertain future reward.

Without mentally preparing for making those sacrifices, you’re diminishing your chances to succeed. The first step of preparation is to understand what types of sacrifice you’ll experience.

Get ready to sacrifice comfort.

Sleeping in my car was not fun. It probably wasn’t the safest choice either. I was working four jobs when I decided to launch my company. Driving back home for a night’s sleep was a luxury of time I didn’t always have.

Physical safety and well-being aren’t the only comforts you may need to give up. If you want to achieve more than you have today, by definition you’ll have to push yourself out of your comfort zone. 

You’ll have to learn skills that don’t come easy to you. Does negotiating make you feel awkward? Does the thought of speaking before a group terrify you? 

Too bad. To achieve success, you have to put yourself in situations where you risk looking silly or failing. Then you’ll need to figure out how to move past it, because it will happen. Physical exhaustion will likely be the least of the discomforting experiences of working hard.

Get ready to sacrifice personal relationships.

Your time is a fixed commodity. You can’t create more of it. Saying “yes” to investing hours into building a new product or company may seem like a no-brainer at the start. You’re beginning an exciting new adventure. One you may have been dreaming about for years.

Saying “yes” to your dream means you have to say “no” to something else. It could mean saying “no” to your kid’s recital. It could mean saying “no” to giving your partner the time they want with you. You may not be available to support a loved one when they need it. You may not even have time to think about starting new relationships.

These personal sacrifices are the most difficult ones of hard work because you’re not the only one making them. You’re forcing people important to you to shoulder this sacrifice too.

Get ready to sacrifice other opportunities.

There’s an opportunity cost to hard work. The time and financial constraints inherent in striving towards a new goal force you to pass on other goals.

Any professional and personal goals you have outside your main ambition will have to wait. Going on vacation to Milan sounds wonderful, but what will that take away from what you need to do now to attain long-term success?

An amazing professional opportunity may come along. One that keeps you on your current path when reaching for your new goal would take you in a different direction. Do you take that opportunity and put this other goal aside? Or do you say “no” to moving ahead in your current circumstances? In some cases, saying “yes” to one goal may mean foreclosing completely the path to another one.

The bargain for future success.

When you set a professional goal, you have a vision of how life will be better when you achieve it. That vision makes the short-term sacrifices worth it — even knowing that your hard work won’t guarantee success.

Others may decide that the sacrifices hard work demands aren’t worth the potential outcome. That’s OK. Everyone has their own measure of what they want their work-personal life balance to be. Not everyone has the tolerance for risk needed to sacrifice for an uncertain outcome. (Stepping up your risk tolerance may be part of sacrificing comfort for you.) There’s no one right answer.

Yet making these sacrifices are necessary if you want to reach for a goal that lets you change your life. The goal may be getting public acclaim. You may want to build a company you can sell for millions. Maybe you want in on the Financial Independence/Retire Early (FIRE) lifestyle.

Regardless of your individual goals, prepare for the mental challenge of sacrifice. Maintaining commitment to hard work is an obstacle that defeats many. Your vision is the motivation, but it’s no substitute for the grueling, unglamorous sacrifices of hard work.

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