by Cody Hodge

Created on: December 04, 2008   Last Updated: August 24, 2010

No matter what happens to you in life, don't ever let anyone tell you that you didn't work hard enough. It doesn't matter if you get fired from a million jobs, have no money, no family, nothing at all, don't let people say it was because of lack of effort.

The effort that you put into life is about the only thing that you can control. You can be incompetent, poorly trained, plain not talented enough to do whatever it is you are doing, but no matter what you can always try your best, and do the best in the situation that is presented to you.

Why is working hard such a valuable tool to have?

First of all, a hard worker is likely to get more opportunities to succeed. Not only do people respect a hard worker for working so hard, they respect the fact that you have the drive and heart to want to keep going when others stop. Being a young, recent college grad, the only thing I have going for me is that the fact that I am willing to work my hardest to make it as a writer. I don't care how many hours I have to put in, I am going to get myself to the top of the mountain. I will be the best that I can be, and even if I don't even win a Pulitzer, I can say that I did my best and left it all out on the table.

Opportunities will also come to a hard worker simply because they will work harder to find them. Think about it, when a slacker goes to bed a 10PM, and is sound asleep, the hard worker will still be up writing that paper, or looking through want ads to find a second job to make enough cash to survive. In the end, that hard work will pay off, whether it be an A on a paper in a class that a professor never gives an A on, to maybe that second job gained for extra cash turning into a long term employment situation after school. You never know who you will meet, especially in today's world where any contact can have a benefit.

Usually, a hard worker is a good worker. They will pay attention to details, they will scrutinize everything they do, looking for any imperfection that can be corrected, any slight tweak that will give them an advantage. They will be the first one to work in the morning ready to go, and the last one out the door, not leaving until the job is done. A hard worker usually cannot sleep unless everything is done, fretting over the fact that the effort they gave could always have been better.

In this day and age, you have to work for everything that you get. In this job market, a simple degree does nothing without some sort of work experience behind it. Gone are the days where college kids could go to school and not work and have a parent support them. Well, maybe in some cases, but from what I experienced in college, most of the kids payed their own way through school.

I have known some people who started networking in high school for a job that would be at least five years away. Good planning is a result of hard work, which is an opportunity that will be earned, that some people wont have just because they didn't take the time to think of it. Hard work will always be a valuable asset, and will propel anyone to a level of success in life if they are willing to pay the price for it.

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