When did life become fair? In my experience it’s pretty random. Time and time again I am reminded how man plans and God laughs real hard. That being said, is hard work something that inherently makes a person special?
If you are reading this and feel targeted, you shouldn’t. A Scott Galloway podcast is the inspiration for the topic despite what floats around social media. This topic is ALWAYS on my Facebook. Since this topic DOES come up all the time in these artist circles I figured I’d chime in.
I know all about working hard. I know that when you perceive yourself working harder than others you feel you deserve more recognition than others. You also rarely get that recognition in ways that feel meaningful to you. Truthfully no amount of praise will ever be enough.
Working hard isn’t that special
From about 2016-2022 I worked a full time job, while managing music, podcasting and reading a bunch of books. It was not easy. I worked real hard.
I spent a lot of time and money. I learned that I can habitually do 80 hours a week as long as I set my schedule up for consistency. When it comes to some “working hard” competition, I used to feel my name should be brought up.
However I rarely see anyone bring me up, some folk do, but it’s infrequent. The reason is because my results aren’t as lit as they should be given how hard I worked. If I dropped a new song today, it might get 100 views organically, if I’m lucky. I see the viewership on all my podcasting and blog efforts. I have not done enough to highlight my effort as folks like JS tell me with #NOREGARD.
I work really fucking hard but until recently, clearly not on the right things. I read that line and laughed, I don’t know what the right things are yet.
I’ll give you a very clear example of a blunder that kept me from bags. I stubbornly fought the trends on YouTube for album reviews doing something I believed was the future of content on the platform. Turns out what I was doing was proper for Twitch.
Instead of jumping to Twitch at the start of COVID, I waited until October. I worked real hard on all kinds of stuff in that time. I did not however work on learning how to stream live until it was reaching a tipping point of saturation. My old man self was too stubborn to smell the gold and hard work aside, I missed out on a lot of growth potential.
Same shit for TikTok, Reels. I don’t really care if Threads pops now, it feels dumb. But what if. Either way I worked hard, but dumb. Also let’s not front at all, a lot of people worked WAY harder than me, and you know that because it shows in their results.
All successful people work hard
Apparently 80% of ivy league schools are rich kids with wealthy hookups. The 20% of normies who get there are statistically random. Most of the people who get rejected from these schools are equal when it comes to their credentials. They all grinded, did the extra-curriculars, proved they were brilliant but were ultimately born middle class or poor.
The problem with the working hard rationale is that the correlation between effort and wins barely exists in real life. Upward mobility in society is based more on who you know, not what you did. If you want to level up, you need to move to circles where the money and prestige is at.
When you get to those rooms you’ll realize every single person in that room works their asses off to be where they are. Individual effort is a basic expectation for success. In the same way treating a person you want to fuck kindly is what you are supposed to do, it’s not worth extra points.
Another fun fact from Prof G is that in this economy, middle class and poor people don’t relocate as much. Our parents and them would move to a new prosperous city and that would create growth. Nowadays the lower income classes are more fixed AND when cities do pop off, it’s mostly talent imports who benefit, not the locals.
I’m not trying to shit on anyone who thinks they work hard, I just want to express the honest conversations I had to have with myself, publicly. Your ability to work smart on the other hand can be very special. Bringing people together is worth something. You need to take your crazy work ethic and focus it somewhere that creates real value.
But… not everyone works hard
That’s a fact. However this conversation is about if working hard is special. There are a lot of people who can get results without working hard. An expert tends to find hard tasks in their field to be light work. An expert also knows every possible way they can be lazy and get things done faster.
As an example, when I’m spitting game to restaurant owners about making 8 videos, they see it as a huge task. To me it’s nothing, 8 posts over 6 months is, well frankly, light work. I know the logistical realities and can properly estimate a timeline, delivering what is required of me. That restaurant owner, working really hard, would take days to do what I could do in an hour.
Having a strict work ethic will guarantee your longevity in whatever domain you are in. As long as you keep grinding you will keep going. Your level of success is based on whether or not you adapt with the times and the markets around you.
Once upon a time it made sense to have your own website. Now you can operate a business off a Linktree and Shopify/Eventbrite. Understanding how to operate a lean business based on efficiency is the key to profit in 2024. At least that’s what Scott Galloway keeps telling me on his Prof G Podcast.
However apparently being an entrepreneur also involves working 80 hours a week just to invest more money instead of getting paid. I simply cannot afford that yet. So instead, I need to work real hard to deal with my money so I can make up for the past.
Then I will work real hard to invest with more wisdom than I applied in the past.
People see the hard work
When you put that effort in, people see it. When the right people see it, they often don’t say a thing. However when the right opportunity arises that matches what you bring to the table, that hard work isn’t forgotten.
It also isn’t a guarantee that your hard work will give you the results you want. Most restaurants fail. Even when they have great food, a good concept and proper marketing. 5 years later, most restaurants don’t exist anymore. I am sure all of those folk worked hard to win, but they didn’t. The way many artists will work hard, and never see the dollars they deserve.
History is full of people who paved the way off their blood, sweat & tears only to be forgotten by the person who came next. The people who walk into a house where the foundation is already built have a much easier time than the pioneers. This isn’t fair, but history is a cruel mistress when it comes to truth bombs.
Everyone can achieve greater results if they are willing to find smarter people to work with and more efficient ways to get things done. Life is certainly not a solo game of who works the hardest. If anything nepotism rules everything around me. We all need to find some trust fund kids and show them the best possible time regular shmegulars can have. Let them feel alive amongst our plebbery. Then we can get our rap scene sugar daddy game on point.
Stay humble, hustle hard and the real ones will know.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone.