I was taught that “working hard” was the key to success.
It is and it isn’t.
For the first 18 years of my life, though, through sports and school, I operated believing that this half truth was the way to get ahead.
And I missed out on a few dreams, like playing collegiate baseball.
I watched as others surpassed me — not because I was inadequate but because I didn’t truly know how to work or what it really took to be in the top 1% of my craft.
If you ask me today what it takes to win, I’d say: hard work plus smart work plus consistency.
Hard work isn’t always smart work. Smart work will go further when worked hard.
Smart work includes:
- Working on the right things — the things with the highest impact on the goal
- Economical allocation of your time and energy
- Finding your highest point of contribution and doubling down on it
- Having a singularity of focus
- Prioritizing needle-moving tasks (often least fun but most important)
- Ensuring directional accuracy (micro-tasks are aligned with an achievable, accurate end goal)
Hard work includes:
- Duration of work (time in the lab) plus effort exerted (physical work)
- Blocking time and not stopping until you’re complete
- Mental endurance to work even when you don’t want to (discipline)
- Unrelenting bias toward results (nothing else matters)
- Cutting off distractions, working on weekends, saying “no” to vices
More often than not, winning just requires outlasting, not outworking, the other guy. People think it’s all strategy. But stamina is largely under appreciated — and under leveraged.
Most of the time, most people have one, maybe two of these bullet points activated.
Very rarely does someone have all six spinning at a given time. It takes real concentrated focus — and physical stamina — to do that.
The infinitesimally small number of people who get there almost assuredly guarantee massive success, setting a pace for exponential outcomes.
If you get done all you need to do in four hours per week, great.
Imagine what you could do multiplying that input by a factor of 20.
There’a a caveat: past a certain point (like 80 hours per week), there are diminishing returns the longer you work. That’s because, all things being equal, time in the lab does not necessarily correlate with better outcomes — it just expands the surface area upon which success can be sparked. But do not work through exhaustion. Work up to it. Then go rest.
Plus, the brain can’t be productive for hours on end without a break.
Spurt-based work is where it’s at. Aim to normalize six to eight 90-minute sprints each day, equating to a ~72-hour week. 100 hours is probably overkill, but the standard 40 isn’t enough if you’re truly all-in on your life’s mission.
These 12-hour work days do not have to be literally on your computer, staring at a screen.
I count work as anything which contributes to my ability to live a healthy life, which then feeds into my mission.
A 45-minute compression therapy and red light sauna session is work. A 90-minute hike is work. A 60-minute boxing class and jog is hard fucking work. These all count, and break up the monotony of the actual screen-staring.
Entrepreneurs are business athletes. You have to train like one.
Working hard but not smart means you’re probably just spinning your wheels. How do you know you’re headed in the right direction? You lack structure.
Working smart but not hard means you have all the genius in the world but aren’t packaging it for optimal outputs. You lack a plan, a process.
Work hard, smart. This gives you the best of both worlds.