Monthly Archives: November 2021

November 22, 2021 | Noble Uzoagba

Antoine Griezmann, the French footballer, once said, ‘With hard work and effort, you can achieve anything.’ I genuinely believe that virtually everything substantial is impossible to achieve if one doesn’t work hard. It is clear that hard work comes with pain and sacrifices, but one sure fact is that a hard worker is on the right path to achieve his dreams. 

So many great inventors, leaders, pacesetters began life at a place of disadvantage. Maybe they didn’t have good primary schooling or the necessary funds to achieve their dreams. But what did they do? Sit back and watch and blame life? No! they worked so hard, paid so many sacrifices, and got the reward in the end. They pulled of marvelous discoveries and inventions. Some others broke massive records, making them so famous that they became famous worldwide even after their death. That is what hard work can bring.

Here are some of the benefits of hard work:

Hard work brings success: John Carmack, a successful video gaming technologist, said, “focused hard work is the key to success.” John’s statement is as valid as it could be. The little effort, the little step in the right direction, is what sets one up for success. We’ve seen this in the career of some great sportsmen, how the amount of work they put in brought them to a great level above others.

Hard work brings self-fulfilment: Let’s say you have an exam, and you put in long night hours to read and prepare. After this, you write the exam, and when the results are released, you find out that you did amazingly. How would you feel? Happy with yourself, right? That’s the kind of self-fulfilment that comes with working hard.

Hard work brings recognition: It doesn’t matter how talented one is. If he doesn’t work hard, he won’t be recognized. Anywhere a genuine hard worker is, his results would always bring about recognition and recommendation.

In conclusion, hard work pays as Lou Holtz, a sportsman, sums it up by saying, “winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they’re making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that’s the difference”. Try to work hard from now and enjoy the benefits.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Noble Uzoagba is a student. He is dedicated to success in his academics and future career. He is a member of B2SL Success Hub.

I think that my biggest attribute to any success that I have had is hard work. There really is no substitute for working hard”. – Maria Bartiromo.

Over time there has been misconception and out-of-context explanations about hard work and ‘smart’ work. Some people try to shy away from the fact that you need hard work to succeed. Unfortunately, no successful person got there by not working hard and still making progress by the same hard work.

There is no such thing as ‘smart’ work without hard work, but there can be hard work without brilliant work. After working hard, you seem to be working smart because of lots of experiences from working hard. Innovative work is simply putting your hard work effort in the right direction of success. On a lighter note, we now have smartphones everywhere because we have people who worked hard on several phones to get us to where we are today.

In 2002, Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, founded SpaceX with one of his goals to decrease the cost and improve the reliability of the access to space, ultimately by ten. The first three launches of the rocket to achieve this between 2006 and 2008 all resulted in failures. These failures almost ended the company as Musk planned financing was to cover the costs of only three launches. Tesla, SolarCity, and Musk personally were all nearly bankrupt at the same time as well. Musk was reportedly “waking from nightmares, screaming and in physical pain” because of the stress from the hard work to turn around the failures.

After putting so much effort and failing, it felt as though he was not being clever. However, things started to turn around when they achieved the first successful launch on the fourth attempt on 28 September 2008. Years later, after the success achieved from much effort, Elon Musk is now being seen and talked about as one of the most intelligent persons alive today.

By now, this should be clear that it’s not just enough to have clear goals like Elon Musk, but you must be ready to put in the needed effort to achieve them. Never think you are not being smart enough when you are failing. If you keep putting in the required consistent effort, you will eventually become someone the world will count as bright, just like Elon Musk.

I look forward to hearing from you in the comments section on your current journey working hard on one goal or the other. You are also free to ask questions where you need clarity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charles Adimah is an entrepreneur and the Project Manager of B2SL INITIATIVE, where he manages the vision. He is a great believer that a prosperous Nigeria is a product of successful Nigerians. You can reach him via email at charles@b2sl.org.

There is a world of difference between a person working hard and the one who hardly works. We often find ourselves lost amid activities that we wonder whether we are yielding the desired result. If you are not careful, you sometimes spend hours, days, and even weeks truly busy, but at the end of it all, you will realize that you have just been wasting your time doing nothing. Here are some of the strategies for developing the spirit of hard work below.

Specify tasks to do and allocate time for having them done. Don’t be a victim of multi-tasking and over-commitment beyond your capability. Always isolate one to do at a particular time, then proceed to the next. When you complete tasks one after another, it helps you keep track of your achievements and the pace at which you accomplish them.

Avoid procrastinating. Never put up for later what you can do now. One thing with shifting responsibility is that you will always find out that the same reason that made you postpone a particular task still exists at that future time which you pushed it. So, whatever is worth doing, is worth doing now and perfectly.

Ensure you make adequate provision for rest. You can’t feel good and do good if you don’t have good health. Rest allows us time to generate and replenish the energy we expend at work or any task our body needs to complete. There is a saying that people who don’t sleep because they don’t want to fall sick will surely fall ill because they failed to sleep. Your body is the vehicle that will carry you through this experience called life. So, make sure you have a good time for rest and make sure that you eat well if you have the means. It is also important to note that overfeeding and addiction to food have the psychological tendency to make you lazy. So, your health (physical and mental) determines your productivity also whether physical or mental.

Also, to develop the spirit of hard work, ensure you have accountability partners. By this I mean, you have some person(s) that will always remind you of your commitments, assignments, engagements, and projects. Your accountability partner can be your mentor, your friend, your parent, and your elders. You can also use To-Do-List, where you itemize all your schedules in order of preference and urgency and attach a dateline to each item. Above all, be intentional about anything you find yourself doing. Avoid time wasters and unnecessary chats or conversations. Follow these steps, and we will surely meet at the top to do business because you will undoubtedly be successful.

You can tell us your thoughts or questions in the comments section below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Henry Ibrahim is the Content Creator at B2SL. He loves working with young people to help them discover their purpose in life. You can contact him at Ibrahim@b2sl.org.

“Luck is great, but most of life is hard work” – Lain Duncan Smith.

It is the beginning of a new month, and who can believe that we are in the 11th month of the year already. We have just about 61 days until the beginning of another year! This year has been a challenging year for most people worldwide, especially with the Coronavirus pandemic and the attendant social and economic consequences. We have shown remarkable resilience in staying afloat up till now, and we can only hope for better days ahead.

Our value focus for November at B2SL is hard work. Without a doubt, you cannot succeed in life if you do not work hard. Many people get scared at the thought of hard work because of the connotation of stress, discomfort, and sustained effort associated with it. Hard work is just like a bitter pill to swallow, yet if we want to succeed, we must work hard just as we swallow bitter pills if we’re going to get well.

So, what is hard work? The online dictionary defines hard work as a great deal of effort or endurance. Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines hardworking as constantly, regularly, or habitually engaged in earnest and energetic work. We can learn from these definitions that everything in life requires effort, from walking to talking, reading to writing, exercising, playing, etc. The second thing we can learn from the definition is that we must put in extra effort if we want to succeed. The extra effort is the game-changer.

One common trend with all successful people is that they put extra effort into winning the prize. For example, throughout the term, you learn different topics in different subjects. At the end of the period, your success will largely depend on how much extra effort you have put into mastering the exercises and examples so you can answer the questions correctly. If you do not put in extra effort to master the topics and answer the questions correctly, you will fail.

How you get your grades in school is not different from how you get your reward in life and become successful. When people want your service or product, they want to see how much extra effort you have put in to satisfy them. The level of effort you put into what you do will determine people’s satisfaction and their willingness to patronize you repeatedly.

As you build yourself up for success, try to imbibe a mindset of hard work into what you do. Think about how you can put in extra effort to improve yourself. Whether it is in your writing, singing, coding, studying, or whatever career you choose. Hard work will not kill you; it will only ensure that you are successful.

As we start the month on a high note of hard work, we would love to hear your experiences or questions in the comments section below.

We wish you all the best.