Hard Work is Not The Key

Sunday Scoop #52 - This opposes everything I believed in for the past 5 years. A hard lesson to learn a hard truth.

Hey friends,

A couple of weeks ago, I came across this short Chinese writing.

The English Translation of the above writing would sound something like this:-

The Importance of Choice

If blindly toil makes you money, every farmer would be a billionaire;
If plain perseverance makes you successful, every beggar would be a success story;
If sheer labour changes your destiny, every delivery man would have a net worth of millions.

Once we pick the wrong road (make a wrong decision), any hard work after would be futile.
One wise decision is more crucial than thousands of hours of hard work.
But in this life, more often than not, we climb to the 99th floor, ready to open the door to success, just to realize we forgot to bring the key.

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Now, this hits close to home.

Ever since High School, whenever I was doing output (completing Problem Sets / Past Year Papers etc), I preferred to do so while listening to audiobooks, podcasts or interviews.

Years and years of listening to the ‘Mamba Mentality’ by Kobe Bryant, the ‘Two Hand Philosophy’ by Dwayne Johnson, ‘Work Every Waking Hour‘ by Elon Musk led me to believe that with hard work, anything is possible.

And I still think it is! Anything is possible, but not EVERYTHING.

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As I reflect on my days in college, I think that I was blinded by the spiel of ‘hard work’.

Pioneering a bunch of projects, taking on multiple leadership roles, saying yes to everything.

“I should be able to manage it. Just work a little harder, work a little longer.“

As a result, my studies took a backseat.

After all, there’ll still be time right? As long as I study harder later, employ one of the thousands of productivity tricks I have up my sleeves, I should be able to pull through.

It doesn’t work that way. Not going to throw a pity party here but my A-Level results didn’t turn out quite the way I wanted it to.

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Moving forward, I plan to constantly re-evaluate my commitments and consider if they are within my personal limits.

Make no mistake. I am extremely averse to the concept of placing limits on oneself. But it is some thing that I’m slowly trying to accept.

The only way to stretch my limits permanently in the long term is to gradually test it (not piling on everything all at once) and to push myself beyond the comfort zone step by step. Life is a marathon, not a sprint.

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I’m writing this on the newsletter because firstly, it acts a self-reminder when I’m in University later.

Secondly, most of you subscribed belong in 1 of 2 categories:-

• You are leaving for University

• You are referred from my shameless plugs during UCAS Lab and you’re applying for University

Either or, this issue would serve as a good reminder to ensure that you make the right choices along your way.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew.

Don’t be so engrossed running that you don’t stop to re-evaluate whether you’re on the right path.

As you climb the ladder to success, make sure you bring the key with you.

While hard work is a pre-requisite of success, it does not translate into success. Wise choices does.

I sincerely hope this issue brings some form of value to yourself and you’ll keep this in mind as you progress along your journey.

Have a productive week ahead, my friends.

Jia Shing.