This post may contain affiliate links. Please read the disclosure statement for more info.

Hard work is not necessarily fun. Most people shy away from hard work because humans are designed to take the path of least resistance. That’s why we can stand out if we go after and succeed in something hard for the main reason that there won’t be that much competition.

Hard work creates strong people. Strong people create easy work. Easy work creates weak people. Weak people create hard work.

I heard this saying from a friend a couple of weeks ago that struck me. I had heard the first part of his saying but the rest of it was what was most interesting to me. It showed that there is a cyclic nature to work that happens on small scales and large scales.

At a single company, someone can be an all-star and makes everyone’s jobs easier. Therefore, people begin to coast because the all-star sets them up for success every time. When the all-star moves to a different project or company, the freeloaders don’t know how to pick up the slack. This is a classic example of strong people making easy work that creates weak people.

On a much larger scale, people say that the “Greatest Generation” in American history are those that came of age during the great depression and fought during World War II. These people created the foundation for the next generation, the “Silent Generation”. While most people do think of the Silent Generation in one way, Wikipedia notes this:

Critics of the theory that those born from 1928 to 1945 tend towards conformity and playing it safe note that, at least in the United States, leaders of 1960s era rebellion/innovation/protests such as Muhammad Ali, Bob Dylan, Noam Chomsky, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jimi Hendrix were members of the alleged Silent Generation and not Baby Boomers.

Wikipedia, Silent Generation

Hard Work in Our Lives

In each area of our lives, we face hard work. If we shy away from it, we will constantly be looking for others to solve our problems. Only when we attack hard problems is when extraordinary things happen. Not only do we grow into stronger people, but the people around us do as well.

In our relationships with friends & family, having those uncomfortable conversations is where the growth occurs. We can make our network stronger by connecting on a deeper level and, in the process, uncovering what really makes us tick.

When taking care of our physical, mental, and spiritual selves, the hard work is the discipline to stick with something even if the results are not tangible immediately. The feedback loop in this area of our lives is much longer than in other areas which makes it much harder to continue to put in the work to succeed.

Our professional and financial areas include hard work all of the time. Those people that solve the hardest problems for the company get rewarded the most. Those people that create the most value in the world get rewarded the most. In each case, when we do something no one else has done before, the returns are exponentially high.

Turning Weak People into Strong People

We all start in the weak person category. Whenever we start something new, a hobby, job, or sport, we start below our personal standards. We probably feel like we are producing junk and hate that we can’t deliver what we are accustomed to. This is natural.

It’s because we expect to be experts immediately. We look at the feedback loop in other areas and see how quickly little changes affect our lives. Turning this around and looking at the hard work we are creating for others makes us try harder to make our deliveries better.

This continual effort is what changes us from weak people into strong people. We will push through the tough times and solve the tough problems. This transforms us through increased confidence and experience into stronger and stronger people.

So, let’s keep the mindset that we want to tackle the hard work. We will take what others give us, make it better, and deliver value to our customers, our relationships, and ourselves. If it were easy, everyone would do it. Separate yourself from most people and go for it!