Don't Fall for the Hard Work Fallacy

Does hard work equal success?

You might have gathered from the headline, I don't believe so. Let me explain.

Recently on Twitter, I got into a debate with a guy who is influential in the latest iteration of the "make money online space". He has deleted his side of the discussion so I thought I would outline the conversation here, without calling him out specifically.

This, as you might gather, is a conversation I have had a lot over the years.

Back in the 1990s I started building websites and learned about SEO, business (especially biographies), copywriting, self-development, and so on. While I didn't want to be an entrepreneur per se, I learned a great deal about it because I did want to develop my side business.

One of the things I found out as part of my research was that people never told the truth about the story behind their success, or if they did they heavily downplayed certain elements.

Perhaps because it makes a better story, maybe they don't want people actually following their strategy, but I think mostly there is a cultural bias preventing the truth from coming out.

Nobody Admits to Luck

Time and again people would credit their own success to their personal hard work ethic.

They would explain how hard they worked against all odds.

But we all know deep down that hard work is not enough!

If hard work was the main differentiator then there would be a lot more poor people getting rich.

Of course, I am not saying you don't need to work hard, it's just that good fortune and especially a strong network play a massive part too :)

Even if a small percentage had bad to average luck but succeeded anyway, that is using the exception as a guide, which is dangerous.

Don't let survivorship bias cloud your thinking.

Most businesses fail. Reading about the successful ones is already looking at a subset, and we rarely read about so-so successes (eg. the mom-and-pop lifestyle business), we read about the exceptional.

Take out the entrepreneurs who had a head start (well-off or well-connected parents, for example) and you are looking at a tiny, tiny number of edge cases.

Hard Work is Necessary but One Ingredient

Single parents working two jobs work harder than you or I.

Most of the USA could not find $1,000 for an emergency. How many are working hard? Most of them I would guess.

Yes, you need to be prepared to grasp opportunities, and hard work plus learning creates more opportunities for opportunities, but you need the good fortune to learn those skills, the good fortune to be in the right place at the right time, and a strong network to provide that serendipity!

My Twitter friend came back with the following argument that I am sure you have heard before, the "I am not privileged because I have seen hardship" argument that white men often cry:

You’re acting as if I don’t know struggle and didn’t have to bust my ass to get out of the trailer park. I didn’t luck my way out

I am not, and he didn't read what I wrote.

He and I as able-bodied white dudes living in G7 countries have way more privilege than most people in the world, while I admit coming from lack we have had less than others. We have both been poor and both worked hard to get where we are, but luck has played a big part and it would be wrong to admit that.

One of the key factors in my career was my parents buying a Commodore Vic 20 that they couldn't afford. They were still paying off that computer when I got my second and third computers, it was so expensive to them. My life would have been very different if the circumstances had led them to make the "sensible" decision to not go into that debt.

Did I work hard to learn computer programming on a $0 budget? Yes, of course, but I was also lucky that our school library had computer books that nobody else was interested in. I was lucky my cousin down south in Windsor came to visit and showed me some coding tricks. Heck, I was lucky they chose that computer versus the most popular computer in the UK at that time.

Network is Your Net Worth

As I said, hard work is not the key differentiator. It is important but it is ONE element. Good fortune, learning the right things, implementation and a strong network ALL lift your chances.

Compare working hard at the wrong things, with few opportunities, versus working smart with assets and lots of help.

Raw talent and drive can only get you so far if you keep trying to do everything alone.

I am an introvert, socially very shy, and yet I would say over half of any success I have seen has been due to who I know, not what I know. My traditionally published books, for example, are all co-authored. Those books opened doors to interviews, podcasts, and stage speaking, and that visibility opened up further opportunities.

Writing is hard work, of course, but I never once applied or pitched to anyone, those opportunities came to me. I was ready to grasp the opportunities, but lucky breaks they were.

My dad was a fireman, my mum cared for disabled people. Think they didn't work harder than I sat on my arse at a keyboard? Were they not smarter than the average bear?

Of course not, but altruistic vocations for the good of humanity don't lead to lifestyle freedom or financial success.

Conclusion

Yes, work hard, of course, but don't for a minute think that just working hard will make a difference.

Develop your skills and experience, and get out and build your network. They say we are the average of the people we spend our time with, so find people who have succeeded at what you want to achieve most of all!