I am of the school of thought that no good thing comes cheap. You have to fight and pay the price for it. You have to always belief and be positive about your goals. There will be setbacks on your journeys, obstacles will come, but you're well equipped to handle every thing that comes your way.
The fact that you shouldn't give up doesn't mean you will keep on doing the same thing and hoping for a different or better result, Nah. Yea, everybody should work hard, but everybody should also work smart. Hard work alone won't get you were you want to be if you're not smart about it.
Goal is like having an objective because if you don't know what's your goal in life, you might get lost and take the wrong path. Of course hard working is consider as your discipline and consistency for you to achieve your goal. It will also payoff for you in a long time since you can adapt those consistency in the future. Actually you have a great point, it's also the presence of mind and your smart skills. You'll need to be smart for any decisions you make in life, its fine to make mistakes it will be part of your experiences and your character development. Let's be honest, smart people have a wise strategy to achieve they want unlike to hard work, since they focus on achieving their goal with repeatedly scenario without the change of character development.