Does Hard Work Lead to Success?

[Blueobelisk]

Blindly working hard doesn't lead to success. You have to be going in the right direction, too.

[WernerCD]

In America, I think being born to the right family matters more than hard work, intelligence, and luck.

In what countries do being born to the right families NOT give you a leg up in... everything? What countries are you exempt from the benefits of a silver spoon?

Did Trump benefit from a rich family? Of course... did that "head start" turn millions into billions? Not by itself.

Hard work, intelligence, what you start with, who you know, just showing up to work, natural skill, etc... everything adds up to improve your odds. Luck still plays a large part - you can hit it rich without working hard... or fail time and time again being the hardest working person at a job...

For the same reason you can do well without a college education - but statistically speaking, that piece of paper increases your "worth".

[Aoyi]

I've managed to work my way up to higher positions and pay in most of the jobs I've held. I do believe hard work can lead to success. In my last job, I went from a temp making $14.00 an hour filing paperwork to the office manager making $60,000 in about 2.5 years. I kept taking on more tasks and stayed late a couple nights a week. I showed my bosses I was willing to put in the effort and it paid off. When working retail, I worked my way up from minimum wage sales associate to multi-store manager as well. Now there are definitely jobs out there with no hope of advancement, but there are also many that just putting in a little extra effort can really pay off for you.

[Mandar]

Working hard is an integral part of success. But working hard is not a guarantee of success. You can squander your hard work with poorly managing your time or money and by not having a plan for when you can't work hard at that specific job anymore. It's easy to blame corporate for this, but they are not responsible for their workers like a parent is. They are responsible to their business. It's good to know this but bad to use it as an excuse.

[Aori]

I don't think so, I think it is mostly luck. Very rarely does hard work get you anywhere on its own.

[Super Kami Dende]

In America, I think being born to the right family matters more than hard work, intelligence, and luck.

I wouldn't say that is "success" though. Since there really isn't a measure of Success when it comes down to something as random as who you were born to.

[Dug]

You can only get so far on hard work alone. The majority of successful people got to where they are through a combination of work/luck/knowing the right people.

Take a field worker. Those are some hard workers but by no measure are they considered successful.

[Ghostpanther]

It can help success have a higher chance of achievement. Like the quote from a famous world champion golfer Gary Player ; " I have found the harder I practice, the luckier I get. "

[Brubear]

People who simply say "work hard and you'll be rewarded" are blowing smoke.

If strictly working hard lead to success than Africa would be full of millionaires.

Yes, you need to work hard, but you also need to work smart. You also need to be lucky, and know the right people.

Success is a combination of those four factors. The problem is the amount of each one you need varies greatly from person to person, job to job, and moment to moment. Yes, knowing how to leverage opportunities and work smartly to develop the right skills is important, but simply running into the right people or being lucky also plays a huge role.

I'll give you a perfect example. I worked with someone who is working towards a CS degree. He was working AP at a major retailer and just happened to start chatting with a customer. He finds out the guy he was talking to flew planes as a hobby, something he also did. So they start talking about planes and the guy invites him to go flying with him sometime. When he does, he finds out the guy was head of IT systems for our county. When he told him that was the career he was studying for, the guy offers him a paid internship/entry-level job. He was recently promoted after finishing his degree with the county.

Yes, my former co-worker worked hard, and was being smart by getting a degree. But if he didn't just happen to have a shared interest with the head of IT for the county AND just so happen to start talking to him when he came into the store, he wouldn't have gotten that job.

You need to work hard and make yourself marketable. But sometimes, all you need is to just be in the right place at the right time.

[Saverem]

I think being driven/eager is the most important quality. Not giving up. Running after it. Not getting discouraged or put off. etc.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

depends on whats your definition of success is.

I was going to say this.

But seriously, it's a complicated question. Is hard work leading to success? Maybe. How do you define hard work? Doing 60 hours per week, doing extra time to help everyone, constantly doing what you're asked? Being able to fit twice as much in half the time of your colleagues?

I've known people who were so loyal to big enterprises, who got severely abused, always with the hopes that one day it'd pay off.

Hard work is not equal to passively accepting and trying to be the perfect employee of the month. It's not accepting to receive the trash from higher ups when you're already booked to boots.

Hard work is being able to know your worth. It's being able to strategically curate tasks in subcategories and being able to accurately make decisions about where to cut. Do you believe higher ups want to promote someone who always do too much? No, they want efficiency. If you constantly work too hard, then they'd rather keep you at your position with your salary, because that's where you're the most effective.

It's about making your own luck. It's about jumping on opportunities. It's about understanding that loyalty means nothing - you do not belong to them and they do not belong to you. It's about going where your particular skills - not education, skills - are needed the most. It's about taking risks. It's about failing miserably, before rising up again and giving another shot. It's about never accepting no as an answer - because no means nothing.

More than anything, it's about stopping the vicious loop of passivity and effort. Effort does not pay off. Calculated risks do.

[SirPiken]

Did you just go in and do your job, or did you talk to people higher up than you? Did you ask them how they moved up? Did you ask what skills you could acquire to make yourself more valuable to the company? Did you try to anticipate what the company needed from you before you were explicitly asked to do it?

If you just went in every day and trudged through the work and never took initiative, you might not ever advance. Depending on the job and the employer you may have to use the leverage of your experience and how vital you are to the company to earn more money.

My younger brother has managed to make himself very valuable to the company he works for. Instead of just doing the job he was hired to do, he's gotten himself involved in learning how nearly every aspect of the company he works for functions. He's now usually the only person people can go to for direct answers to questions about how this or that is done. He also aggressively renegotiates how much he is being paid on a regular basis. I wouldn't be surprised if he's doubled his salary in the 3 or so years he has been working for this company. Almost none of that would have happened if he just "worked hard". Don't expect many employers to just hand you more money and a better position because you work hard. Tell them you want a better position and remind them of the reasons they should be giving you more money. Being prepared to look for another job if they don't want to advance you is also a must.

[Tyrgannus]

Much like fire is composed of heat, fuel, and oxygen so to hard work is merely a leg of success along with ambition and networking.

EDIT: I can't completely discredit you though, as networking is the true "luck" factor. Knowing the right people can come from being tenacious and gregarious, sure, but it falls in the laps of many others.

[Witchblade77]

personal experience. was definitely not born into the right family - in fact me AND SO are first generation immigrants who came here in late teens. I had some knowledge of English from high school. he did not. my first job and a number of jobs afterwards was in retail - as cashier/stock person mostly (and I don't know which is harder - oil fields or lugging boxes around for half a day to refill the shelves, dealing with assholes who think that just because you work behind the counter - they own you, while on your feet and under eagle eye of a manager the rest of the time), he started as bus boy for a restaurant.

we both made a LOT of mistakes, because of fundamental misunderstanding of finances and especially credit. did we both go to college? yes. neither of us graduated, and while my work was at least somewhat related to my field of study - his isn't at all. both worked hard. how hard? at one point we went days without seeing each other in person. that's while living together in a dinky little attic apartment with ancient boiler that was broken more often than it wasn't.

did it pay off? yes. yes it did.

in all those years that you worked the oil fields. did you put any money away? what did you do in your free time? did you look for opportunities to advance, did you set the goals for the future and planned on how you can accomplish them?

hard work DOES work to rich success. but just working hard is not enough. you also need to be smart about it. and while of COURSE it helps to be born into privilege, that safety net cannot be underestimated. its not necessary. you just have to work harder and smarter and squash any resentment over those that have it easier than you do. resentment is unproductive and gets in a way of working towards your goals.

[Deleted]

well working hard at mcdonalds isn't gonna make you get far

you gotta work hard at the right place and right time

[Deleted]

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[Cthulhu 2020]

In today's modern world, you work and gain skills until you can invest a good amount of money into stocks and other investments. If you get enough investments, you can retire early and live off your investments til you die. If you don't earn enough and buy enough stock, well sucks to be you.

One of the major misconceptions Americans make is that the stock market going up benefits the whole country, when in reality it only benefits people who own stocks and shares... and even then, really only those who own a significant amount. If you're sitting there fapping to how well the "economy" is doing because of the stock market, but don't own any yourself, well I have bad news for you.

[Katchii]

Working hard by itself, no. Working hard on the right things is better, but doing the work and getting noticed for it by the right people is the best. That said, you have to be smart and effective at doing all of those things and knowing who the right people are and working on the things those people care about.

[Fugus]

In what countries do being born to the right families NOT give you a leg up in... everything? What countries are you exempt from the benefits of a silver spoon?

Did Trump benefit from a rich family? Of course... did that "head start" turn millions into billions? Not by itself.

Hard work, intelligence, what you start with, who you know, just showing up to work, natural skill, etc... everything adds up to improve your odds. Luck still plays a large part - you can hit it rich without working hard... or fail time and time again being the hardest working person at a job...

For the same reason you can do well without a college education - but statistically speaking, that piece of paper increases your "worth".

Trump is actually worth less now than if he had never worked a day in his life. He is the living example of too rich to fail.

Economists has looked into it and if, instead of working, he had taken is money and invested it instead in a setup that paid market rates, he would be worth roughly what he claims he is worth now except that no one with 2 brain cells to rub together who has looked into him says he is worth near what he claims.

As it stands, after his stint as president, with all the selling out he is doing, he may very well end up leaving as the billionaire he pretends to be now.


As for Hard work leading to success. While it helps greatly, you can look at our social mobility in this nation to show that overall, it doesn't. Luck plays a bigger factor in success than work does nowadays unfortunately.

[Celista]

Lots of good advice in this thread. Hard work helps. It's not just hard work on the job, it's turning yourself into an even more valuable asset everyday. Working smart is important. Luck is a huge factor in success, drive, interpersonal factors. Try to be as objective as you can regarding your skillset and continuously work on improving yourself.

Don't stay at the same company for 6-7 years expecting a promotion that hasn't happened. If you aren't getting a raise (to at least keep your salary up to par with inflation) or talks of promotion within 12-24 months then it is time to jump ship. Anything past 3-4 years really is too long nowadays, unless you are exceptionaly passionate about the company or have limited employment opportunities elsewhere.

People spend far too long at companies (for a myriad of reasons) expecting things to improve. Generally speaking, they won't. "Putting in your dues" is a throwback to an earlier generation and work culture.

Did Trump benefit from a rich family? Of course... did that "head start" turn millions into billions? Not by itself.

Trump is a fuckup, he would have a significantly higher net worth if he had simply invested his "loan" from his father into an index fund.