Mankind encounters a lot of enemies in life, with the worst ones being immortal. Bad Luck, for instance, is a one of humankind's greatest foes. Unjust Circumstance is a villain everyone has faced before. For these types of enemies -- the ones that never really go away -- you always need a friend to serve as a buffer. That’s certainly helpful when, for example, you’ve hit hard financial times.
How about the people you’ve networked with? The people in your network come in handy when you need someone to put in a good word for you. All of these friends are ultimately fallible, though. There is one however, who is guaranteed to always come through for you.
Have you ever gone hard for something? I mean, really, really gone hard for something you wanted or even needed. Go ahead, think about it. How often have those types of efforts gone unrewarded?
It’s not often that someone who works hard never gets what they deserve. Just take a look back at your life. Think about everyone who’s been in high level positions: your high school valedictorian, that dean’s list student, that president of your organization, the manager you work under. These people may not have been the smartest, but they all share one common denominator: Hard Work.
That’s because they made great acquaintances with the most valuable friend you could have in your camp. Hard Work is, quite simply, the friend that never fails. If you’ve ever missed out on anything in life, 9 times out of 10 your failure could probably be attributed to a lack of Hard Work.
Don’t get me wrong. You don’t have to be lazy to fail, nor do you have to be bad at what you do. In retrospect, when you look at opportunities you lost or didn't take, you might always have the question hanging over your head of, “could I have done more?”
Of course, we can all do more, and the consequences for not doing so are known to all. For each time we relax or get comfortable instead of opting for continuous, grinding work, we leave our destiny in the hands of others.
Have you ever been rejected from your dream school or job of choice? If you have and think you could have done more, you might know exactly what I mean. You put your fate in the hands of others. The future is determined by someone else’s discretion when you don’t try as hard as you can.
See, that’s the thing about Hard Work. It makes you undeniable, irresistible even. When you really work for something, you simply cannot go unnoticed. It's nearly impossible to look over someone who is going above and beyond to get what he or she wants. Sure, you can get by with the bare minimum. But really, how much is enough to get what you want?
When is taking a lengthy break really acceptable? When you’ve made it, perhaps? But for everyone who hasn’t made it yet, you might need to bring this friend into your circle. Hard Work is the one who is guaranteed to get you where you want, the one who makes you immune to being overlooked. Hard Work is the one who will always put your future firmly in your own hands. It’s Hard Work, and it is the friend who never fails.
