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?
How do I define working hard? Working hard for me is something like you do the hard job like masonry, plumbing, carpentry and the like that involves too much energy in order to give a better output. A hard work but less income as to compare with those who are working smart. Most of the people who do this job are those who was not given the chance to finish their studies. Their mindset is "to work and be paid". But for the smarter people who have the same job like this, maybe their offer a negotiation, agreement and contract on how to finish the project with the agreed price at a given time, so that aside from their daily income they can have a profit also for the agreement and contract they made.
Working smarter needs a lot of self determination and positive outlook in life that whatever you do, it will succeed. And when time comes that there is a failure, consider this as a lesson that teaches us to do better. It also means that you don't have to stick for only one job at a time, have a part time job as much as possible but not to the extent that you almost forgot yourself to have a time for relaxation because if that will happen, it is like you are working harder.