Coming from a military background, I encountered the phrase “work smarter, not harder.”
With that being my very first experience with real work, I couldn’t help but conform to the world and agree.
That saying has followed me to my first job and even into the first business I created using affiliate marketing.
That same saying was what I preached, and it is also what I lived my life around.
Even after I fired myself to be my boss and worked from home for the last six years, I still followed suit.
It is that same saying that has got me into trouble and why I don’t use it anymore.
So for those of you who think that you should, I want to tell you why you shouldn’t.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
What in the world does that even mean?
If you were in the military or you know someone who is, you might have come across that phrase.
You can check out what everyone thinks it means on Quora, but it’s not complicated.
It means what it says.
Put in less work to accomplish the same task.
It certainly does work for a lot of things in life, but there are some significant areas that you should not use it in.
And here they are.
1. It Does Not Apply to Entrepreneurs
Work smarter, not harder, is best for anyone who works a regular old J-O-B.
Besides them, it will not help you if you are trying to do more in life.
It will not help if you are trying to get ahead, and it will not help if you’re trying to do whatever the heck you want.
It will not help you fire yourself like I did, even if I failed.
Working smarter is a thing but use that as your guide in life, and you’ll be working for as long as you live.
Now, if you work hard like no one else wants to do, then maybe, just maybe, you might live the life no one else will.
2. It Will Make You Lazy
Having the work smarter, not harder mentality, is equivalent to the Get Rich Quick thinking.
It becomes a crutch in your life, and it allows you to be lazier in the more essential parts.
This ancient post explains it so well, and it even gives some excellent examples.
Being smart and working smart is excellent, but every successful business comes with the right mentality and, most notably, hard work.
Too many “normal people” try to take something so simple and use it to handicap themselves.
They think that being smarter involves taking shortcuts.
They think that leaving the “harder” part out of life will make things easier.
It doesn’t.
All it does is makes you even lazier, and some of you are already lazy as it is.
3. It Limits You
Whether you want to start a home-based business or move up the ranks at work, hard work is always going to be what gets you to the top.
It’s not going to be because you found a shortcut to a solution, and it’s not going to be because you worked less than your competition.
Success happens because you worked hard.
Period.
Don’t limit yourself in what you can do, all because you decided to take the work smarter, not harder route.
Don’t just put in the work but go the extra mile like you know you should.
Only then will you be able to see what you’re capable of doing.
4. It Works Against You
When you feel you’re getting ahead in life, sometimes it’s only temporary.
You think you’re doing so great, and then you start doing things that allow you to spend more and not focus on saving or investing.
Something like this happens because you decided to work smarter, not harder.
You don’t notice it, but it creeps into other parts of your life.
It then damages the foundation of what hard work creates, and eventually, everything will start crumbling down.
You can avoid this if you do one thing and that my friend is working harder.
Not smarter.
5. It Does Not Work
Working smarter, not harder, does nothing for you.
Maybe if you’re in the military and you need to get something done faster and more efficiently but NEVER in business.
So unless you’re trying to be the best soldier (even better than Rambo), you need to leave that saying to the rest.
If you want to achieve more, you’re going to have to do more.
And yes, this includes hard work.
Conclusion – Always Work Harder
In this world, it’s a no-brainer to want to do things more efficiently with the least amount of work possible.
That’s great and all but one that is what we know as common sense.
Leave the work smarter, not harder part for the robots, and put that tiny brain of yours to work.
You build businesses from hard work, which is more intelligent.
If you have a great idea, put in the hard work and let that idea shine.
Don’t have the plan without doing anything, or it’s completely useless.
Use the phrase “work smarter, not harder,” where it is necessary, but please do not use it if you are trying to do more.
You should always work smarter and still work harder.
