Hard work pays off?

[The Abhorrent]

"Hard work pays off" is actually true, even while you're still working on your education. I was one of the smart students myself, and I breezed through just about everything... up to the point I was half-way through my engineering degree. At that point, it became exceedingly clear that raw talent can only get you so far; the reasons are definite. Hypothetically, anyone can do the stuff we're doing; however, we're learning how to do them well. Experience is looking to be one of the biggest assets once we get into the industry, as you're never supposed to stop learning.

At this time, I'm fairly convinced that no one can go through an engineering degree program without putting their time in. Just about everyone in my classes is rather intelligent, and many (if not most) of them could be called borderline workaholics; staying on campus late to do work is very common. Speaking of which, the little Timmy's corner shop is probably making a fortune off the entire faculty's coffee addiction.

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Being of above average intelligence can only get you so far, even if you're well above said average. There are programs out there which assume that everyone is both very smart and has worked hard to get where they are; being smart alone is not enough to make it through them. If the bar feels too low, there are places which raise it; you just have to go out and find them.

 

[Phas]

Work smart, not hard.

Why not both?

 

[StBishop]

Only difference between me and Derrick Rose? Genetics and practice.

I'm the same age, height, and about the same weight. He played a fuck tonne of basketball and is last years MVP of the NBA, I did not and am not even good enough for the Australian semi-professional league.

I didn't find basketball hard at all when I started playing and in primary school and high school I was one of the best players at my school, I captained my high school's team in year 11 and 12.

Hard work pays off.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

it can, but it doesn't have to. know the right people, kiss the right asses, and you can do better than someone who busts his honest ass with the hardest work.

take it from a girl who works less than 10 hours a week^^

This. Something i often see as a key point in the american dream is that harderwork = more pay/reward. This is so untrue its not even funny. Case and point everything said above. You can pull 4 jobs and barely eat while a CEO can inherit a company and sit on his arse all day paying his workers starvation wages because the terrible job market prevents them from leaving.

 

[everythingbeeps]

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes laziness pays off, sometimes it doesn't. It's pretty much random.

But most of the richest people in the world? Didn't work that hard. Either lucked into it, or inherited it.

 

[Kathinka]

it can, but it doesn't have to. know the right people, kiss the right asses, and you can do better than someone who busts his honest ass with the hardest work.

take it from a girl who works less than 10 hours a week^^

Hard work still pays off. It's just not your hard work that's paying you off, but somebody else's.

One should either make sure that the pay-off for their hard work ends up with them or, if one doesn't mind some moral ambiguity, make sure the pay-off for someone else's hard work ends up with them.

also not neccessarely. there is not always hard work involved, by no one. i don't have any workers under me, i'm an artisan with a one-person-company.

most people don't want to hear it, but hard work doesn't always pay. it doesn't do any harm, sure. but it doesnt neccessarely help. the world simply isn't fair. it mostly comes down to luck.

Quite necessarily, that's what most modern economies are based on: a direct relation between one's contribution to production (be it capital, labor, natural resources etc.) and one's monetary gain.

'ass-kissing' and knowing people aren't factors of production and as such aren't 'supposed' (in a fair world that is...) to have a monetary gain associated to them. Any monetary gain that does come from them is thus necessarily diverted from another's contribution to production.

But as you say, the world isn't fair. I personally don't mind at all how you earn your money, I'm more concerned about how I'll earn my own. But while I wouldn't say that knowing people and profiting from that is necessarily bad it's definitely in the morally ambiguous territory.

that first point is how it should be. alas, it is not.
i custom make jewelry for snobby, uptight rich people (of wich i hope non are reading the escapist^^). it's pretty, expensive, and actually completely useless, and not even hard work or very difficult. everyone with some skill in fine crafts could to what i do. and yet i earn more than a scientist who sacrifices every bit of personal life in order to find a cure for cancer.

i wouldn't say earning money without contribution to production or society is 'morally ambiguous'. it's taking advantage of the circumstances in an unfair world. if that's morally ambiguous, i don't know..

 

[Gloomsta]

It depends where you put in the hardwork and if its necessary.

Working more hours to buy a luxury car? Waste of time.

Working hard to play an instrument? Good use of time.

 

[dimensional]

Hard work does pay off believe me but it might not pay off in the way you are looking for. If you are looking to improve yourself it will pay off if you are looking for it to get you a promotion or a better job (i.e be better off in an indirect way) then that is unlikely to happen I am afraid the world does not function that way.

That is not to say it wont happen if you work hard it just dosent really factor in much.

 

[boyvirgo666]

Yeah i did the same thing in school and its bred bad habits in me now. I can pass any class with an A without really trying, not all that hard when you know how to handle things. But its bred bad work habits in me that I still need to break out of.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Don't know...never tried it.

I'm not sure what the pay-off could possibly be that would justify it. I can't think of much that I actually want.

 

[The Harkinator]

Hard work in work pays off if it is noticed by the right people.
Hard work in school pays off for you personally.

 

[smithy_2045]

Hard work can pay off, but a lot of the time the payoff isnt worth the investment, and sometimes there isn't even a payoff. The trick is knowing when you're wasting your time.

 

[Crimson Butterfly]

It depends where you put in the hardwork and if its necessary.

Working more hours to buy a luxury car? Waste of time.

Working hard to play an instrument? Good use of time.

This sort of sums it up.

You could be a very talented guitarist but without the practice you'll never really develop all the skills needed to play like a master. On the surface this would seem like a very good example of hard work paying off as you should be recognised easily as brilliant at what you do.

Now, you want to use your talent to make money. This is where the line becomes blurred. You could spend long hours trying to get gigs and exposure but your whole life could go buy and you never really make it big. However, someone with half your skill and talent gets a break because they happened to be in the right club one night or they knew someone in the industry. Now, they're not a bad guitarist but you are still the superior musician. Did the hard work pay off then?

I'm a little jaded and sore about this kind of thing. I was always a believer in working hard and you'll get your thanks but the company I work for at the moment doesn't dance to that tune. If your face fits, kiss the right ass or kick up enough of a fuss you get what you want. I know more than my superiors about the company and how it needs to be run but I'm still seen as the bottom grunt on the ladder.

On a lighter note, I love creative writing and I used to do it all the time. I guess that honed my skills enough to start winning accolades and competitions.

Shame I gave it up when the ones who praised me for it and encouraged me down that path then told me it would never get me anywhere in life and I needed to think of developing skills for a "real job". Oops, burst the lighter note moment there!

 

[xXGeckoXx]

If you are in college, either you are taking community college or you are in intro level courses at your school because both of them are utter tripe. It will get harder, much harder.

Hard work for the sake of hard work is what sheep do. Don't do that. Nothing which is worthwhile was ever accomplished without hard work. Even if you want to con people out of their money, you still need to work hard to be an excellent con artist to amass your wealth.

Hugely depends on subject. If you are taking science or engineering prepare to work your ass off and when you are not working going to find places to work that are not part of college so that you will have connections later.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Working hard only pays in your tolerance levels / work ethic, i.e. it won't be difficult to pick up work if it becomes part of your daily routine.

But beyond self improvement working hard alone will do you no good, in the outside world you need to work smarter.
Whatever you do first make sure there is a good prize at the end of that line before you dig into it, and do that with the correct approach.

 

[Giest4life]

If you are in college, either you are taking community college or you are in intro level courses at your school because both of them are utter tripe. It will get harder, much harder.

Hard work for the sake of hard work is what sheep do. Don't do that. Nothing which is worthwhile was ever accomplished without hard work. Even if you want to con people out of their money, you still need to work hard to be an excellent con artist to amass your wealth.

Hugely depends on subject. If you are taking science or engineering prepare to work your ass off and when you are not working going to find places to work that are not part of college so that you will have connections later.

No, sir. I disagree. Achieving anything that's worth anything even in the Arts will require people to work their asses off.

I'm doing a double major in Finance and in Philology (study of languages), and believe you me, French 101 is kicking my ass despite the best of my efforts.

But, yeah, most of the time people do the Liberal Arts because it's easier, without realizing that just as much hard work if anything is to be accomplished. It's true for me, at least.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I came into college not knowing how to program a damn thing and though working my ass off to make sure every project I complete is as good as possible over 3 years of computer science education I've become one of the best programmers in my school and better then some of the people who have been programming for far longer. I went from spending literally 3 hours to program a python program that outputs something like this:
#*#*#*#*#*#*#
######******
##**###***####****
procedurally to programming a DFA to NFA converted of about 700 lines of code in a day.
If hard work doesn't pay off, then I'm a banana.

 

[Crazy]

The harder you work the more of a reward you'll recieve, I have learned.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

It's not a completely false statement. Sometimes you work hard and you will be justly rewarded. However, some people can get results for certain things by barely even trying, and some people for certain things will always be crap no matter how much effort they put into it.

 

[Hagi]

hat first point is how it should be. alas, it is not.
i custom make jewelry for snobby, uptight rich people (of wich i hope non are reading the escapist^^). it's pretty, expensive, and actually completely useless, and not even hard work or very difficult. everyone with some skill in fine crafts could to what i do. and yet i earn more than a scientist who sacrifices every bit of personal life in order to find a cure for cancer.

i wouldn't say earning money without contribution to production or society is 'morally ambiguous'. it's taking advantage of the circumstances in an unfair world. if that's morally ambiguous, i don't know..

What you describe here isn't 'kissing ass' or knowing people.

It's the production of a scarce product. Which is high on the labor factor (labor includes technical expertise) and as such it economically speaking is hard work (by virtue of being producing a lot, measured by it's monetary value, through labor), even if you do not experience it as such. Technical expertise is a contribution to production.

And if everyone could do what you did it, by economic logic, wouldn't be a scarce product.

I fully realize that there's more to the world then just economics. But even then I wouldn't describe what you're doing as 'kissing ass' or knowing people.