It’s great to know that someone is putting in lots of effort. As a football fan, it’s great to see players, regardless of their position, running around like mad men, getting back and tackling, or bombing forward to create opportunities to score. However, unless a player is doing what he should do, whether it’s defending, making space in midfield, or up front scoring goals, then what’s the point point in putting in all that effort? Results matter, and effort alone won’t always get results.
The same is true for everybody else in the working world. It’s all very well putting in 15 hour days and being the first to arrive and last to leave the office every day, but there’s not much point unless you have something to show for it- whether it be closing a sale or executing a great marketing campaign. You could work for days on end, but unless you work smart, then it may all come to nothing.
Last week, Seth Godin talked about using your time effectively in a blog post entitled ‘Cheating the clock’. He asked whether we would alter our working behaviour with only a fraction of the time we usually have in a day. In other words, you need to be indispensable, regardless of the amount of time you have- working lots of hours (e.g. ‘hard work’) won’t necessarily make you effective.
But nevertheless, I’m a believer in Thomas Edison‘s quote that ‘genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration’. However this was meant, I like to believe anyone has a chance to become a genius as long as they work hard. You need to put in the practice, the preparation and the time so that you can realise the inspiration you have inside, because without the inspiration the genius can’t exist!
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