Just Because It's Hard Doesn't Mean It's The Right Thing To Do

Idle hands are the devil’s workshop, right?

But if you hang around with ultra successful entrepreneurs, you’re going to hear this phrase: “It seems like the less I work, the more I make”

So which statement is more true?

That’s what we’re talking about today, we’re going to have some fun destroying a big misconception about hard work and hopefully save you so me pain in the process, so let’s get into it.

When you hear that phrase, The less I work, the more I make, how does that hit you?

For many people working a job, it feels icky, especially coming from the fat cat boss who just sits around telling them what to do.

If you’re in the States, it really hits you.

The whole idea of work being easy might seem like an assault on the Puritan work ethic.

Americans were raised with the idea that work purifies the soul - hence the phrase “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”

And when you start a business, you bring all your misconceptions about work ethic with you.

And if you’re not careful, those misconceptions are going to keep you from the next level.

For any goal you have in life and in business, there are a BUNCH of possible paths to get there.

When you look down those paths and you see one that’s more difficult than the others, it’s tempting to think that the hardest path is the right path.

Simply because it’s hard.

The same thing happens when something in your business isn’t working. Sales are down, your marketing isn’t working, your program or product just isn’t clicking with the market.

Your work ethic can spring up inside and say, “I just need to buckle down and work harder! More calls, more emails, more selfies on Instagram!”

It’s like humans have some weird, pathological need to suffer. But I’ll leave that to the philosophers.

So here’s the big idea for today: Just Because It’s HARD, Doesn't Mean It's the Right Thing To Do.

Microsoft chose the hard work of competing with Apple in MP3 players and smartphones.

Was the hard thing the right thing to do?

Of course not, the Microsoft Zune was a good product that came too late and the Microsoft smartphone was a spectacular failure, a giant, squandering waste of time, energy and capital.

Let’s bring it down to the lifestyle level.

Take two people who got married young and then realized they’ve grown in different directions and are now incompatible at a fundamental level.

Many people would tell them that the virtuous path is to stay together.

Do the “hard work.” After all, it builds character.

There’s even a book I ran across years ago called Sacred Marriage whose central idea is that marriage isn’t designed to make you happy, it’s designed to make you a better person.

One might wonder why the author didn’t just skip to the end and marry a therapist.

Let’s take it into the business realm.

Years ago I talked to a gentleman who was very successful in real estate first as an agent and then as a coach.

He had the same experience as a new agent that most of us did.

We get our license and a broker basically hands us the phone book and tells us to dial for dollars.

He ignored this advice, and instead leveraged his background and relationships in the corporate world to build a referral network and do a ton of relocation deals with corporate executives.

So right away he had higher home prices, which meant he needed fewer transactions.

He ended up building a very niche, relaxed, 7-figure real estate business as a solo agent.

Something similar happened to Aaron Ross at Salesforce.com.

He was tasked with making calls and generating sales opportunities using standard B2B tactics.

It wasn’t working, so he fired off a batch of cold emails and got a great response rate.

Then he took that initial success, broke it down into a system, and that system eventually generated $100 million in sales pipeline for the company.

That led to him writing the book Predictable Revenue, which is amazing by the way, and into a 7-figure consulting business installing his system in other companies.

All what those stories have in common is each of them chose NOT to go down the hard path.

They could have kept banging their heads against brick walls, which is exactly what many people in their world would have preferred.

But instead they took a different path.

One that required a different form of hard - hard thought.

So let’s bring it to you and me.

We all want to get to the next level of influence, impact and income, and do it all with great lifestyle and great integrity.

In my opinion, we should make the best decision for our business.
Regardless of which path seems the hardest.

When you’re looking to get to the next level, everyone around you is going to have their opinions on the best path to get there.

And someone is going to challenge your work ethic, your strength of character, your ability to suffer in pursuit of your goal.

And it’s going to be very tempting to choose that hard path just to prove to others that you can take the pain.

That doesn’t mean it’s the right path for you and your business.

Because getting to the next level isn’t about taking the hardest path.

It’s definitely not about building a business around things that drain your energy.

Because if you get to the next level based on doing things you hate, it’s only a matter of time before you fall back down to the level you’re at.

There’s more than one path to success. And just because something is hard, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.