Ever since we were little, a belief was inculcated in
our little minds. We were told that hard work is the key to success. We were
constantly urged to work hard for this would guarantee success in future. Time
passed and things changed. Our little brains were now mature and driven by the
fantasies of success, which were fuelled by our hard work. Our hands were no
longer soft like a tulip’s petal, they were now like cactus in a dry desert. It
was then that I realised hard work is irrelevant, that much of my childhood was
driven by a baloney.
Imagine your sorrow, when after intense studying for
17 years, you simply do not get good grades in O’ Levels. You would be dejected
and depressed. You might lose belief in the concept of success. You might even
categorise yourself as a moron, since you believe that you worked hard but
failed and now you will end up in the slums. Actually most people would already
argue with me, saying that hard work guarantees success. That’s a false
perception. I can quite seriously quote examples and events when I didn’t work
hard and still got better grades. This is not only my case, such cases are
abundant. Then others would say hard work and luck both are important. Well I
would not refute luck’s role in success but I am trying to convey another idea.
For me, true success is winning without working hard.
Like seriously, hard work is cheating. For instance, you give a day to 2
students to prepare for a test. One gets the time, prepares and polishes his
skills. The other one faced some emergency, he did work the same time as the
other one though. Next day, the first student has a better result. Reward obtained
by hard work is not the true portrait of your skills. It is the reward of some
skills you loaned. A reward without hard work is the true show of your flairs
without any artificialness. Another analogy here. Let’s say that there are 2
beautiful women. One of them applies loads and loads of make ups (like heaps of
layers of it). The other one does nothing and shows her natural beauty in the
perfect manner. Both then appear in a beauty contest. Who, do you think, should
win? Now, unless you are the owner of a cosmetic products company, you might
probably vote for the latter. Nevertheless, in the heart of enterprises,
Silicon Valley, following the example of Netflix, all giants don’t want to see
you working around office 24/7. They only want to see a good product at the end
of the month, no matter if it took 3 weeks or 3 hours to be made. Hard work has
no real value then? It is irrelevant? So, is this a new addition in the lies we
tell to little children? Should you rely on hard work merely for future
success? I would not comment on any of the question. But I believe that you
have the right to exercise your judgement after reading my point of view and I truly
honour that. So hard work is irrelevant? You be the judge.
