The Myth Of Working Hard

I explained to him that I used to be very reluctant to tell people what ideas I had for business because I used to think that if I told others the ideas they would steal them and use them themselves. But lately, I had cone to learn that there are very few people who actually have the drive and desire to implement something, even when they know that it is a brilliant idea with the potential to greatly benefit them.

It is just too much work to venture out, take a risk, plan, and work extra hours in order to build up a business. I have known of people that have been presented with opportunities that would require very little effort on their part and just a little investment of time, but they have turned them down. It seems as if it’s not totally free they won’t do it.

He agreed with me and explained that it had more to do with people’s mindset. He went on to explain an interesting conversation he had had with the guard at home. When talking to him, the guard had made a remark to the effect that because he was poor he had to work extra hard in order to make a living and survive.

My brother was quite perplexed and puzzled by this remark and asked the guard whether he thought that because our parents were better off they had to work any less than he did in order to make a living. Did he think that those that are not poor do not work as hard as poor people?

This seemed to be a revelation to the guard, who could only say “ayi,” as a way of express agreement.

The guard’s thinking is something which is not at all uncommon to a lot of people. There is a general perception that the poor work very hard and slave away, whilst the wealthy do not work nearly as hard and spend their time having fun and just enjoying life, everything seeming to work out well for them automatically.

Working hard at failure?
But this could not be further from the truth. The truth is that both the poor and the wealthy work very hard. Robert Kiyosaki observed that “the only difference between a rich person and poor person is how they use their time.” The poor spend their time meeting their basic needs. The wealthy spend their time doing things that make them wealthier.

In most theories of motivation it is well documented that until a person meets their basic physiological needs, such as shelter, food and water, they are not able to think about meeting their higher needs such as self-actualisation.

The hierarchy of needs
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is perhaps one of the best known and easily applicable theories. Maslow came up with a ranked structure of behavioural stimuli that try to explain motivation. In it he described two “higher order needs.” The first is the need for freedom of inquiry and expression: for social conditions permitting free speech and encouraging justice, fairness and honesty. The second is the need for knowledge and understanding: to gain and order knowledge of the environment, to explore, learn and experiment.He argued that the physiological needs of food and shelter had first to be met and satisfied before the higher order needs could be sought and fulfilled.

The ycle of poverty
This is why the cycle of poverty is so pervasive and hard to get out of. If people are forever going about to meet their physiological needs and spending all their time and energy on meeting such needs there is no way that they will ever find time to look into their higher order needs. Willem de Kooning concluded that “the trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time.”

That, for me, is one of the reasons why Africa is not at the forefront of scientific, technological or other development in the world. We are too busy surviving. We are too busy meeting our basic needs. Until a time comes when people do not have to worry about what they are going to eat, where they are going to sleep and what they are going to wear, we are doomed to continue in this cycle of poverty and dependency.

Power to the people
Empowering people is the best economic policy any country can ever have because the people will then do more to help themselves and their fellow man that any government could ever do for them. It’s not the government who should make things change. The duty of the government should be to develop the capacity of the citizens to solve their own problems.

Having said that, you should never think that because someone is wealthier than you are they work less than you do. Instead, think how you can also work hard and work smarter so that you can reap more with the same or less effort. That is one of the secrets of the rich. Don’t work hard at things that have little reward. Work hard at things that have huge rewards.

Work smarter instead
That guard could work very hard, spending every night on the job guarding other people’s houses and offices and even spend his days working a second job and still only make enough to barely survive. Or he could work smarter; spend the same amount of time guarding at night and some of his other time developing a business. The second option would probably make him wealthier than the first. But the effort would probably be more or less the same.

Therefore, do enough of the right things the right way. If you do enough of the things that wealthy people do then over time you will become wealthy yourself.