Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - "Successfull people have to work like crazy and give up the best things in life"

Orecle · 07-29-2009, 09:26 AM

Acting like Godot

we are both saying the same thing, but you keep leaning towards the "long hours" part of hard work.

The sports injury example you gave is not fair. you have no proof that they were injured because of hard work. do you have proof that they put in more hours than the champions. or that they pushed themselves harder than anyone else?

Michael Jordan, Kobe bryant and Tiger woods are known for putting in far more hours than their counterparts and yet they didnt have career ending injuries. There are many players who dont put in more than the avarage hrs and they have career ending injuries. peoples tolerance of pain and injury is different.

ie in boxing, some terrific boxers have weak chins that get them knocked/floored with a punch and some mediocre boxers chins cant be stopped with a sledgehammer

overworking yourself is not hard work, thats just naivity. yes i do play sports and recognise the DEFINITE need for a work/rest cycles. the results should always justify the effort put in, whether the results are immediate or in the future. so the reward of digging a ditch doesnt justify the effort in my eyes. but if i was in a recession and needed to feed a family of 8 then i would do it.

lets look at the term OVER WORK. Doing more work than necessary. some people can excell on far less work than others. you are obviously one. but not everyone is like that. there is not a set amount of work, that can universally be classed as hard work. I can run for an hr and half at 10km per hr, easily daily. this is not hard work for me. i meet many people who tell me i am overdoing it

but...... by whose standards ? by whose definition of long and/or intense hours?

remember we both agreed that there are 2 aspects 2 hard work
1. hours
2. intense work

the 1st seem to be favoured by the masses since very few people can get themselves to do intense work. the lucky few can do both intense work for long stretches of time

now we were talking about the production of world class work.

lets take medical students. they put in very long hours doing intense work. my cousin is a barrister in a top london firm where she is one of the few minorities. when she started 8 yrs ago she had to put in the hours to build her reputation. now she depending on the severity of the case she can take it easy some weeks and have weekends off, or she can throw herself into it where she cuts everybody off to really focus

i dont disagree fundamentallly with what you say. i do not see the purpose in putting in 80 hrs to get in what you could have done in 20. but in my opinion when you max out in intensity, you have to make up in hours.

ie

2 cars

prius and an Bmw m5

prius is 75 bhp, m5 is 500bhp

the max output of a prius is 110 miles per hour, the bmw is about 190 mph with the limiter taken off (which any dealer can do at discretion, voiding of warranty and a fee)

since the prius hardest work (110mph) is no where near the bmw, it would have to put in nearly twice the hours to keep up with the BMWs productivity (distance).

in business and in education, the natural ability between the top and the average is immense.

take steve

what he acheived academically is not possible for all r even most (even though i firmly encourage people to try to see their real edge) the ones that might be able to match his output probably could not do it in the same time frame. they could have matched him hour for hour and still come up short.

you mentioned that you put in average hours in your studies at uni and still got good grades. well do you realise how many people put in exactly the same hrs and fell on their faces? do you realise how many people put in the same hours and got much better grades than you?

what i am trying to say in my long drivvle is not everyone can produce high quality productive work. if you cant, until then you will have to put in the hours till you can produce like the big boys (or girls)

or do you really beleive that someone who is already producing mediocre work or even average work and belleives they are at capacity and wants to be world class, should still put in the same 40 hrs a week and hope to get a different result?

so when brian tracy says develop a workaholic mentallity in 21 secrets of millionaires, he was talking guff.

so let me ask you a question

if you wanted to become the best (what ever you do..............in the legal profession) in North America in the next 5 yrs, could you still do it on your current hrs. i am talking so good that there is a waiting list for your services. so good i can google you and i will see your name in business magazines as a top corporate lawyer or something, so good that you are begged to be partner on the most promenent law firms and regular asked to lecture at harvard law school?

07-29-2009, 09:26 AM	#50 (permalink)
Orecle Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 573	Acting like Godot we are both saying the same thing, but you keep leaning towards the "long hours" part of hard work. The sports injury example you gave is not fair. you have no proof that they were injured because of hard work. do you have proof that they put in more hours than the champions. or that they pushed themselves harder than anyone else? Michael Jordan, Kobe bryant and Tiger woods are known for putting in far more hours than their counterparts and yet they didnt have career ending injuries. There are many players who dont put in more than the avarage hrs and they have career ending injuries. peoples tolerance of pain and injury is different. ie in boxing, some terrific boxers have weak chins that get them knocked/floored with a punch and some mediocre boxers chins cant be stopped with a sledgehammer overworking yourself is not hard work, thats just naivity. yes i do play sports and recognise the DEFINITE need for a work/rest cycles. the results should always justify the effort put in, whether the results are immediate or in the future. so the reward of digging a ditch doesnt justify the effort in my eyes. but if i was in a recession and needed to feed a family of 8 then i would do it. lets look at the term OVER WORK. Doing more work than necessary. some people can excell on far less work than others. you are obviously one. but not everyone is like that. there is not a set amount of work, that can universally be classed as hard work. I can run for an hr and half at 10km per hr, easily daily. this is not hard work for me. i meet many people who tell me i am overdoing it but...... by whose standards ? by whose definition of long and/or intense hours? remember we both agreed that there are 2 aspects 2 hard work 1. hours 2. intense work the 1st seem to be favoured by the masses since very few people can get themselves to do intense work. the lucky few can do both intense work for long stretches of time now we were talking about the production of world class work. lets take medical students. they put in very long hours doing intense work. my cousin is a barrister in a top london firm where she is one of the few minorities. when she started 8 yrs ago she had to put in the hours to build her reputation. now she depending on the severity of the case she can take it easy some weeks and have weekends off, or she can throw herself into it where she cuts everybody off to really focus i dont disagree fundamentallly with what you say. i do not see the purpose in putting in 80 hrs to get in what you could have done in 20. but in my opinion when you max out in intensity, you have to make up in hours. ie 2 cars prius and an Bmw m5 prius is 75 bhp, m5 is 500bhp the max output of a prius is 110 miles per hour, the bmw is about 190 mph with the limiter taken off (which any dealer can do at discretion, voiding of warranty and a fee) since the prius hardest work (110mph) is no where near the bmw, it would have to put in nearly twice the hours to keep up with the BMWs productivity (distance). in business and in education, the natural ability between the top and the average is immense. take steve what he acheived academically is not possible for all r even most (even though i firmly encourage people to try to see their real edge) the ones that might be able to match his output probably could not do it in the same time frame. they could have matched him hour for hour and still come up short. you mentioned that you put in average hours in your studies at uni and still got good grades. well do you realise how many people put in exactly the same hrs and fell on their faces? do you realise how many people put in the same hours and got much better grades than you? what i am trying to say in my long drivvle is not everyone can produce high quality productive work. if you cant, until then you will have to put in the hours till you can produce like the big boys (or girls) or do you really beleive that someone who is already producing mediocre work or even average work and belleives they are at capacity and wants to be world class, should still put in the same 40 hrs a week and hope to get a different result? so when brian tracy says develop a workaholic mentallity in 21 secrets of millionaires, he was talking guff. so let me ask you a question if you wanted to become the best (what ever you do..............in the legal profession) in North America in the next 5 yrs, could you still do it on your current hrs. i am talking so good that there is a waiting list for your services. so good i can google you and i will see your name in business magazines as a top corporate lawyer or something, so good that you are begged to be partner on the most promenent law firms and regular asked to lecture at harvard law school?