Next up in the Self-Help Fails series:
#3 – Work Hard and You Will Succeed
Variations:
- Work and you’ll get what you need; work harder and you’ll get what you want. (Prabakaran Thirumalai, medical entrepreneur)
- Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get. (Ray Kroc, former McDonald’s CEO)
Why this is a fail:
- Successful people are the only ones who ever say this. They ignore the myriads of hard workers who struggle. What about single parents working three jobs to feed and clothe their families? How many of them get a lucky break? The truth of success is that hard work is often necessary but rarely sufficient.
Dozens of successful people say things like this. I’ve only scratched the surface with these quotes. They should know better. I find it shocking, the disrespect they’re expressing for all the many thousands of hard-working people who haven’t had their advantages.
On the other hand, many successful people acknowledge that hard work doesn’t guarantee success. They manage to emphasize its importance without sneering at those who are less fortunate. Here are some examples:
- People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get. (Frederick Douglass, abolitionist writer, orator, statesman)
- For every two minutes of glamour, there are eight hours of hard work. (Jessica Savitch, television news presenter)
- It takes a lot of unspectacular preparation to have spectacular results in both business and football. (Roger Staubach, former NFL quarterback)
- My success was due to good luck, hard work, and support and advice from friends and mentors. But most importantly, it depended on me to keep trying after I had failed. (Mark Warner, US Senator)
You can view the entire Self-Help Fails series here: https://stephendiamond.me/category/self-help-fails/.
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