Hard Work + Smart Work = Prudent Work
Hard Work
A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work. Success requires 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. Success is the result of hard work, learning from your mistakes, loyalty, persistence and perfection. Thomas Edison has once said, “There is no substitute for hard work”.
The surest formula for success is Success = Hard work + Dream + Dedication + Perseverance.
Hard work is not a kneejerk reaction but it becomes attitude of a person. It needs to be done consistently.
Story of a Carpenter:
It reminds me of a story of a carpenter who has served for 40 years in a construction company and was moving on retirement. He shared his plan to leave the company and lead a peaceful retired life. The employer was sorry to see his good worker retiring and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter initially didn’t agree but, due to the pressure of the employer, he unwilling agreed and started working. But his heart was not in it. His workmanship was not as good, he used inferior material and he wanted to finish his work as quickly as possible as he wanted to proceed on retirement. When he finished his work, the employer handed over the front door key to him, “This is your house”, and he said, “My gift to you for your consistent Hard Work.”
The carpenter was shocked. If he would have known earlier that he was building house for himself; he would have done it differently. The moral of this story is Hard Work cannot be done in bits and pieces. If the job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.
Upanishad has rightly said
यत कर्म कुरुते तद्भि सम्पद्यते
Meaning: — As you sow, so you reap.
Story of Thirsty Crow:
In my childhood, I have heard a story of thirsty crow. Story goes like this- there was a desperately thirsty crow who finds and earthen pitcher with water in the bottom. His beak was too short to reach the level of the water. The clever crow was very hard working and intelligent. He thought of a plan and he started patiently dropping pebbles lying in nearby locations into pitcher until the water level rises and he can reach it. This story is an example of hard work and innovative approach towards problem solving. The lesson from this story is Hard Work is not an Option, it is a necessity to achieve your goal.
You cannot enjoy your life by shaming and shirking your responsibility. You may be happy for shorter duration but permanent happiness can only be achieved by consistent hard work.
Story of a Merchant and his Donkey:
It reminds me of a story of a merchant and his donkey. The merchant used to carry a load of salt with the help of the donkey, one day accidently donkey falls in a stream and the salt melts away and thus the donkey felt very happy as the load has reduced. The donkey also did the same thing second and third time. On identifying the habit of this donkey the merchant started loading sponge on this donkey and the donkey as usual falls in the stream, and the sponge becomes heavier absorbing all the water. The load increases and it becomes difficult for the donkey to move on. The lesson from this story is shaming and shirking does not help you in longer duration.
Smart Work
These days it is said that you should be smart working rather than hard working. Let us understand the difference between the Smart working and hard working. Smart working people are goal oriented and they realize their goal with the least effort and in the least time. Smart working is a directional approach and smart workers prioritize the area in which they should put their hard work. Hard working people are generally lacking the direction and do not prioritize. They keep working for the result which they may get later than the smart working people. I consider hard work and smart work are two faces of the same coin or two hands of the same body which are required to clap. Hard work and smart work both are required to accomplish objectives. Even smart working people will have to resort to hard work for achievement of their objective. Therefore somebody has said Believe in yourself, work hard, work smart to achieve what you wish to achieve.
Story of two Roommates:
It reminds me of a story of two roommates Amit and Abhishek. Amit was a regular student who used to follow all the routines and very meticulous in studies. On other hand, Abhishek was intelligent, smart and believed in enjoying the life. Both of them were doing engineering and Amit used to attend almost all classes whereas Abhishek used to bunk most of the classes. In examination, Amit used to study for a longer duration whereas Abhishek used to scan through the subject. On receipt of the result, it has been always observed at Abhishek used to score better marks than Amit. Amit used to ask Abhishek that why it is happening like this. Abhishek used to explain him that you are hardworking and I am smart working. I put my efforts where I feel essential, I prioritize and accordingly I put my hard work in the area of importance. Then both of them decided to do combined study so that hard work and smart work should combine together to give the best result. It was seen that in the final result both of them scored well and they were declared toppers of their University. Therefore, hard work is important but knowing where to use hard work makes the difference.
Story of CTC (Indian Army):
When I was posted at Pune, I found that a heart lung machine of CTC (Cardiothoracic center) was non-functional. Heart lung machine is critical equipment used by Cardiologist for performing bypass surgery. Siemens India Limited has already given quotation for repair of this machine for Rs 2,25,000/-. During the visit of Director General of Armed Force Medical Services at EME school Vadodara. He requested the services of repair team at CTC Pune. Ultimately I was given this responsibility. When I checked the entire equipment I found that one of its fuses was non-functional. It was very difficult to locate the place of defective fuse. After 5–6 hours of hard work I could locate the defective fuse and came to know the root cause of the problem. News spread everywhere that engineer who has come from EME School Vadodara is going to repair this heart lung machine. Next day I purchased a fuse in One Rupee and the machine became functional. Everybody praised and applauded my prudent work (hard work + smart work).
“Effort is important, but knowing where to put an effort makes all the difference”.
Story of 18 KVA Generator (Indian Army):
When I was posted to Ferozepur, One 18 KVA generator which is required with RADAR has become defective. Everybody tried their level best to repair it but failed. Ultimately I heard about a genius craftsman at Batala, who was master in repairing of all types of generating sets. His name was Santa Singh. Mr. Santa Singh came took out a hammer from his tool box and made strike at 3 places and he just connected two wires and 18 KVA generator became functional. I asked him for the bill and I was really shocked to learn that the bill was of Rupees 5000, I spoke to Santa Santa that whole process of repair has taken you 5 minutes why should you charge so exorbitantly and asked for the detailed bill which he has forwarded me as under:
Using the hammer: Rupees 200
To know where to use the hammer: Rupees 4800
Total: Rupees 5000
Therefore, it is very important to use hard work but at the same time you must know where to use the hard work and this is actually known as prudent working.
Please remember that prudent working in silence leads to success. Let your success make the noise. How can you have a million dollar dream on a minimum wage earning?
Hard work does not guarantee success but it definitely improves its chances. To quote Harry Golden, “Only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work”. In the words of Thomas Jefferson,” I find that the harder I work the more luck I seem to have”.
Hard work leads to smart work, it goes with profound saying that Practice makes a man prefect. Smartness is gradually acquired with persistent efforts and experience. I will quote a story to prove my point:
Story of King and his three sons:
A king had three sons and as he was ageing he wanted to select the rightful heir for his kingdom. He tasked all his sons to fill one large room with only one substance and not even slightest gap should be remaining and this should be done in half an hour. They were allotted three separate halls. All three sons moved in different directions to find such substance. The first one started filling the room with the help of servant with large stones. Second son thought of filling the room with hay and ordered some of his servants to carry the assignment. The third went to his dressing room and pick up small bottle filled with liquid and carried it to the large room allotted to him for task and sprinkled the liquid in all directions of the room. After half an hour king went to examine the rooms to observe the first two rooms, filled with stones and hay had minute gaps between them and therefore they failed the task. The third room was filled with the fragrance of Jasmine, not a single corner was left without the smell and he selected his third son as his heir. The moral of the story is if you apply intelligence while doing the day today work that becomes your prudent work and third son has exhibited example of prudent work and therefore he was declared as the king.
3 H Concepts:
When you perform any work, you are likely to use our Hand, Heart and Head.
Head + Heart: You will have good planning and emotional attachment to the work, but no work will get done as your hands are not involved.
Head + Hand: The work might get done as planned, but it will lack a passion as your heart was not involved.
Hand + Heart: You will work with passion, but without using your head. Well, you can only imagine what the outcome will be.
Head + Heart + Hand: Of course, with a great plan and the right amount of passion, your actions will bring the best outcome. This is the best example of Prudent work.
Using your head, heart and hands, your dreams will be turned into reality.
I will like to quote a shloka of Sanskrit:
उद्द्में ही सिध्यन्ति कार्याणि न मनोरथै,
नहीं सुप्तस्य सिंघस्य प्रविश्यन्ति मुखे मृगा |
Meaning: — Prudent action and not wish leads to success, even dear do not enter in the mouth of sleeping lion.
Some Hindi poet has written:
कर्म भूमि पर फ़ल के लिए,
श्रम सबको करना पड़ता है ,
भगवान सिर्फ लकीरें देता है,
रंग हमें ही भरना पड़ता है |
Even the same sentiments have been echoed by Great poet Harivansh Rai Bachan:
जब तक न सफल हो, नींद चैन को त्यागो तुम,
संघर्ष का मैदान छोड़कर मत भागो तुम,
कुछ किये बिना ही जयजयकार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती |
All works and tasks can be categorized as under:
Easy work — Complaining, Blaming, Lying, Cheating, Pretending
Hard work — Inspiring, mentoring, helping, learning and giving
Smart work — Focus on objective, Prioritize, allot more efforts and time as per importance of the work.
Prudent work — Smart work + hard work
