Working smart vs working hard (an ultimate guide)

[Panchum]

Many people say that you should work hard if you want to succeed in life and rise to riches. I'd rather say that working hard will only make your boss richer, not yourself. On the other hand, there is an age-old adage which says that you should be working smarter, not harder. But working smarter is a vague idea, and I'm interested to hear what people have to say on this topic. As far as I'm concerned, I think that working smart comes down to creating environment where you will have more chances to meet Lady Luck smiling at you, where you will be able to hit a lucky strike because luck plays an ever-important role in our lives. For example, if you want to find a date to have a romantic relationship with or you are looking for a one-night stand only, you will go to a beach or a bar since your chances are higher there, right? The same approach seems to be applicable to work as well. In other words, stick around the places where your chances of success are the highest.

So share your opinions here, guys. What is your practical take on working smart?


Below I will be posting replies which I consider most relevant, revealing and insightful on the topic discussed.

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You have a point man. Actually I have been hearing this sort of argument even when I was still a child. My father will always tell us to work smart, and make money out of money. And when I grow up, I did work hard, but I later realized that I don't want to be worker that long. I need something to help me became financial stable in the future. So I decided to quit my job, put my offline business. Although I still need to wake up early and oversee everything, I did enjoy what I'm doing and the best thing, I'm the boss. LOL. But there's some kind of element in luck as well. I don't know but I felt that I'm just lucky because suddenly I gain financial freedom and then when I discovered bitcoin, it give me another leeway, more funds for me to channel to my business. So I say that you have to make the right decision + element of luck = success in your life. You have to be in the right place at the right time.

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Even when we have heard several talks about working smart, but a lot of people are still work hard thinking that someone will have to teach them to work smart or they are thinking they are working smart. Quite a number of times, I am always taken aback when I begin to imagine what people spend their time on to earn money, struggle, use their strength but nothing to show for it while they are left with no other option than to believe in miracles in other to come out of penury. However, working smart is not something that falls on you or easy to come by, rather its a conscious effort to break away from the shackles of poverty with constant research and education, you are sure to work smart and be financially independent.

What do you mean by working smarter?

I will try to explain the difference between working hard and working smart using an example from software development. Let's assume you have a large set of data which you should sort (arrange elements of the dataset in a certain order). You can take a naive approach and use a bubble sort algorithm which is devastatingly slow. Or you can use something like the quicksort algo which is extremely fast. In the end you will get the same result but times spent will be strikingly different. Now you can try to apply this example to real life.

I don't think that relying on luck is smart. It is truly risky. I think that smart work is rather about thorough development of the ideas, high level of rational success predictability, not luck attraction.

I see your point and I don't particularly disagree with it. But I didn't mean you should rely on or hope for luck alone. You can continue to work hard for your boss as always and still be looking for an opportunity or chance to change your life dramatically to the better. Let's loosely call that working wise. Basically, all I wanted to say was to emphasize that you shouldn't discard or write off the importance of luck completely. Ignoring a stroke of luck when it happens all of a sudden against all odds would be the most foolish idea that you will likely regret for the rest of your life. In this manner, it makes sense to work toward increasing your chances of meeting Lady Fortune one day. For example, if you want to be romantically involved with someone, it means visiting places where your chances of starting a romantic acquaintance are the highest.

Working hard now can't make you rich, Because your salary is short, because all prices of our needs at home are very expensive. While if you work smart you can have the opportunity to have a big income that will change your life.

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[Hell-raiser]

Hi,

I think you are right.. and wrong.

I think you are right when you say that working harder won't do. That's what your boss wants you to believe, but indeed, I think it is a lie. Just because working hard is never as rewarded as it should be. Because we are living in world in which being young and beautiful is much more important than being smart!

I also think you are wrong when you talk about luck. Because your boss (and those of very large companies) are perfectly aware that they are in such position thanks to their luck. So they tend to close their network, to make golden paths that lead to domination... and are completely unaccessible for anyone out of their private "leading sphere".

Frankly, I don't see where I'm wrong here when I mention luck and that you should not only take it into account as a possibility and be prepared to take advantage of it when it pops up, but in fact act toward increasing your chances of encountering it. If you mean that your boss is somehow depriving you of any chance of meeting luck in your life, I think this is simply impossible because it goes against the nature of luck. In other words, luck is something which is not supposed to happen but which happens, and whatever you or they do to close the doors to it, luck will overcome all the roadblocks in the end because it is in its very nature.

[Semosuchi Tesongrato]

I't ok to work smart, but... be careful, to work smart, you need to BE smart, and the majority of  people aren't.
To work smart implis to take decisions on your own, to take risks, to take responsibility.
The majority of people prefer to take commands from a boss that to think by themselves.

So, work smart, if you can!

[BitcoinPanther]

No too long ago, people with success at the back of their minds used to work hard and even harder in order to accomplish the success they crave. Time however have moved on and knowledge have also increased, so that success and accomplishments are no longer dependent on the size of one's muscles. To work hard have over the years been likened to being diligent, dedicated and long suffering, but now all that transmuted instead to working smart.

Suffice to say that one does not, anymore need hard work to make a success, though there're no doubt people, who would rather walk 20 km than catch a cab and they would even glory in the fact that they also made the distance!

People who were very successful works not only harder but smarter.  They tend to multiply their effort by designating and studying stuff to their advantage.  Working with hardship alone will never make or  improve you that much.  It can feed you and sustain your needs but without being smart, it will always goes back to where you started.  Smart people works hard and study the situation harder.  They create strategy so that works will be easier the next time and will yield more profit.  So I guess to be successful, this two factor is really needed.

[zhekinsp]

working smart is the way to be a millionaire because working hard will never make us rich we need to act smart and use all the ways to benefit for us and the important thing is to keep all the people below us is the smartest thing.And the current millionaires of the world or not born millionaires they made themselves as millionaire through hard work in the smart way.

[Chint_82]

I prefer to work smart rather than work hard, because by working smart we spend less power compared to work hard but the benefits that can be greater than the hard work, I hope I can always work smart and gain greater benefits

[GPAP]

who works smart creat trends and take biggest profit. other have to work hard as they just follow this trends

[t4syarosmala]

I have my own definition of this, which distinguishes it from both,
- Working hard means working from the thoughts of others or superiors. We just continue or in other words we apply that thought.
- smart work is, something that leads to work is from our own thinking, how we work becomes easier than others. we make work (of course that makes money) and we own that work our way.

[btc-facebook]

Working hard : easy task, need process , earn just enough for life
Working smart : once you understand the way , you can earn more than enough

On working age : 20-29 , it's time to working hard  until you have some good capital to start new business
So on at least on age 30++ , working smart will make your life safer rather to keep working hard !

[Magister Magus]

Well, hard work is very often indispensable, so working smart usually means to find a way to put other people to do do the hard work.
(this is normal: if you are an engineer, you project a building, but you are not the one that put bricks)
Of course, to work smart means to have the skill and the competence

a) to make a project
b) to convince other people to work for you

of course, this is true in practically any field.

[yvesp110]

There are mamny people, particularly the owners of business, that want to sell you the idea that working hard is a positive value. And it is, for them. WHile you work hard they take the lions share. Don´t get me wrong, it is good to work hard, but do it for yourself.

You have just stolen words from my mouth. This is why I am strictly against working for others. These companies even the famous international brands and multinational companies do not pay you exactly what you are worth of. You work and they enjoy. This is why now the idea of owning and starting your own business is very much appreciated and admired by the well-educated class. Young people are against seeking jobs.

[Eleven86]

I usually do less work and tend to get works done. Bit lazy. I believe in both hard work and smart work. Both go half and half. Current generation expects to do smart work and yes they do work smart. As things are being invented to lessen the work, people have started looking at ways to complete the and get the works done much faster. Smart worker are really welcomed now a days than the hard worker if you look around.

[krhnrhn]

this is not new story but I can say again and again working smart is the best!

[bib24]

In my opinion to attain more positive result you should do both. You need to be smart in order to make your way enjoyable and easier while working harder to achieve your goal. 

[ChrishAi28]

It depends on what work do you. Working smart is eventually working in your job that needs your mind/knowledge. While working hard is when your physical strenght is needed.

[yoseph]

There are mamny people, particularly the owners of business, that want to sell you the idea that working hard is a positive value. And it is, for them. WHile you work hard they take the lions share. Don´t get me wrong, it is good to work hard, but do it for yourself.

You have just stolen words from my mouth. This is why I am strictly against working for others. These companies even the famous international brands and multinational companies do not pay you exactly what you are worth of. You work and they enjoy. This is why now the idea of owning and starting your own business is very much appreciated and admired by the well-educated class. Young people are against seeking jobs.

That's one of the reason why an increasing number of people are currently becoming entrepreneurs and are starting their very own businesses instead of working for someone who might be ungrateful and give you your due in terms of salary.

[Viyamore]

Bill Gates says that he'd rather employ a lazy person than an active person. Lazy people supposedly work smart by doing any task provided in the most easy way available.
My say is that there should be a mixture of both along with some external factors that would affect the work for the effectiveness and efficiency of any job to be accomplished.

I remember Bill Gates saying that as well.
This is a very well said. If it is only possible to have it all, it is more preferred to really have the two characteristics be applied in our work life. But for the others, it is not that is why we are being asked to choose between the two. For me, Billgates is right. I'd rather choose someone who is smart than a hardworking person. A smart person always have ways to make things happen in an easier way. They are more tactical and strategic.

[Hell-raiser]

What is the use of being smart if you are lazy. Being smart is very important in any situation or work. Apply what you know in your work and focus on it. While being hard work is a partner of stategic person and also a being a hard working too.

This is another interesting point which begs to be addressed. People become lazy in two cases: when they are ill or when they are bored by what they are doing or rather by what they are forced to do. It could as well be rephrased in the following way: you are smarter when you do what you like. So, in a sense, it is a virtuous circle of sorts. When you like your job, you will be smart. And the lesson to take home is that if you want to be working smart start looking for something which you truly love and then stick with it.

[haroldtee]

Working hard is different from working hard. Working smart is the act of using your brain to lighten your work. While working hard is your focusing all your strength in that certain work.

hmm. We all understand the meaning of both, but we also have to place it in the real life sense. If it is all about working hard, then the hard laborers who work all day should be earning the best. Now, working smart is in different categories, while some are smart enough to get themselves good skills to hit a good job that pays well than doing a hard labor, some will prepare that environment for themselves to make other smart ones to come build their dream, so in a way, we are all smart, but at the end some are just smarter.

Also, let us not over emphasize only on being smart alone, because opportunity, luck and hard work also have a part to play in your being smart. One thing I have come to understand in life is that we cannot all have equal opportunity which makes smart people sometimes to still end up being successful on different levels.

[jeanne513lefe]

Agree to disagree, I think in order to succeed you need both. When people say that when you work hard you are only making your boss richer. Personally, I think there was a time when your boss needed to work hard AND smart in order to build a business. In short, you can't succeed by working hard or smart, you need both. If you have neither of it, you'll probably be exhausted and poor.