A willingness to work is the least important factor to success. To be successful, a motivation to work is insufficient. In fact, too much of a motivation to work is as detrimental to your career as a complete lack of motivation.
Overly hard workers don’t get rewarded, they get exploited. Too much productivity will actually block your advancement. And, let’s be honest, it’s not actually possible to get a promotion at most companies. Companies hire externally; they don’t like promoting internally as MBA schools teach this causes drama.
The key to success is to calibrate your work to your circumstance. Do you work for yourself, keep all the fruits of your labor, and actually earn more money when you take on additional clients? If you’re a self-employed consultant or something, then sure, harder work is directly rewarded. Work as much as you like. Are you a salaried employee whose company offers no formal bonus structure in writing and is completely capable of stringing you along with endless vague promises of bonuses that will never materialize? If that’s your situation, then working too hard is financially irresponsible. Even if all you care for is career advancement, then you should be doing just the bare minimum required to not get fired. Instead of working overtime that will never be paid for or recognized, use that extra time to work on your own projects or take on a side hustle.
Companies don’t promote from within. No company ever wants to agree to a firm written raise and bonus structure for their salaried workers (thus they have no accountability.) Hard work is not rewarded; it’s simply exploited. In modern office jobs, grinding is the path to failure, not the path to success. The path to success is working the minimum not to get fired, working on side projects in lieu of overtime, and job-hopping every few years to get the raises you won’t get any other way.
You don’t need any of that to be successful. You just need a skill that pays and a willingness to work.
A willingness to work is the least important factor to success. To be successful, a motivation to work is insufficient. In fact, too much of a motivation to work is as detrimental to your career as a complete lack of motivation.
Overly hard workers don’t get rewarded, they get exploited. Too much productivity will actually block your advancement. And, let’s be honest, it’s not actually possible to get a promotion at most companies. Companies hire externally; they don’t like promoting internally as MBA schools teach this causes drama.
The key to success is to calibrate your work to your circumstance. Do you work for yourself, keep all the fruits of your labor, and actually earn more money when you take on additional clients? If you’re a self-employed consultant or something, then sure, harder work is directly rewarded. Work as much as you like. Are you a salaried employee whose company offers no formal bonus structure in writing and is completely capable of stringing you along with endless vague promises of bonuses that will never materialize? If that’s your situation, then working too hard is financially irresponsible. Even if all you care for is career advancement, then you should be doing just the bare minimum required to not get fired. Instead of working overtime that will never be paid for or recognized, use that extra time to work on your own projects or take on a side hustle.
Companies don’t promote from within. No company ever wants to agree to a firm written raise and bonus structure for their salaried workers (thus they have no accountability.) Hard work is not rewarded; it’s simply exploited. In modern office jobs, grinding is the path to failure, not the path to success. The path to success is working the minimum not to get fired, working on side projects in lieu of overtime, and job-hopping every few years to get the raises you won’t get any other way.