Why it pays to work hard - Richard St. John

Nothing comes easy, and behind every success are hours of plain hard work. Sounds intimidating, but Richard St. John proposes a simple shift in attitude to turn mediocre into incredible.

[SebastianLopez-nhrr]

Don't you get it people? Hard work isn't a guarantee for success, but it's, in most cases, a requirement for it.

[PrinNana]

great, I'm not smart and lazy as hell.... best combination

[LimeGreenTeknii]

Just DO IT! If you're tired of starting over, STOP GIVING UP! JUST *DO IT!!*

[HumanOptimization]

I wouldn't call working 60-80 hours a week "success".  That to me is overkill.  Do these people have families? Do they take care of themselves, mentally, physically, and emotionally?  Just seems strange to call overdrive and overworking yourself "success".  

[joeshowmean]

"My old man worked hard and all they gave him was more work."
-Larry Wilson

[Huonous]

The most succesful people are hard workers (according to them), but are most hard workers succesful?

[Ironheart]

Hard work should always be at the core of your blue print.

You can develop intelligence through constantly working hard, and putting hours and hours of refining your craft.

You can always turn your luck around if you put hard work into it.

[ManuAnand]

It's all about "Hurd Wurk".

[Hja]

The "smart people lean back" bit sure hit close to home. I occasionally really struggle with pushing myself after getting all those good grades back in the day. Then I found singing and dancing, which was damned hard for a logical guy, and dang I worked hard on getting those bits right. xD

[borgestheborg]

While hard work is a key element in success, it's not all there is to it. A good portion of the success comes identifying what you want to do in life and taking steps to achieve it. This usually means putting yourself in tough, uncomfortable situations, which the majority of people are not willing to go through. Success is more than about just hard work, it's also about making smart but hard choices and committing to these hard choices. But uncomfortable situations force you to work harder, which improves you further, which encourages you to seek new challenges while comfortable situations do the exact opposite, putting you in a state of complacency with no challenge or pressure, dulling you. So it is as much about hard work as it is about smart work.

[Social_Pugatory]

They're working hard "doing what they love" hence "Workafrolics" pick what you love work hard at it and stick to it. Don't give up. I needed that!

[mphlohi]

Work smart, not hard, and make sure whatever thing/reason you're working for is worthwhile, because the harder you work for something and the longer it takes to attain it, the more the value of it depreciates; if it's not worthwhile, then it's not "success".

[MattCStewy]

What about the people who work so hard all the time but never become successful

[trukkstop]

Many people work very hard, all their life, and have very little to show for it.  Certainly hard work is required to achieve many challenging goals.  But this video seems to suggest that hard work guarantees reward, and this is contrary to what I have observed.  A really smart person, with little effort, will outperform a person of merely average intelligence who has been working really hard to compete.  People with innovative ideas often beat those who continue to do something the hard way.

If you find something rewarding, then you will naturally work hard at it.  But "hard work", for its own sake, is not the purpose of our lives.  Hard work is necessary for most people to pay their bills.  I like the famous quote from President Lincoln: "My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it."  And let's not forget the infamous quote from Nazi Germany: "Work makes you free!", the slogan displayed over various concentration camps where prisoners were worked to death.

[Adam-ille]

It is important to work hard, but you also need to work smart. I know many people that work hard and they are not succesful. There are companies that will pay you the same if you work hard or not, so work clever.

[archird]

Work Until Your Bank Account Looks like a Phone Number

[genericscout]

Work is not better or worse than talent, its talented work that gets you success. There is a direction here, and its about reaching out to the most people and having a great business. You need to work hard at that and with talent to be successful. We don't talk about the failed people who work hard. Instead of saying work I would say determination is a better word and it has to be determination in a field with upwards mobility.

[newbyletstry]

I think, work, in this video doesn't mean a job. Normaly you just do what your boss, tells you to do. Work, in this definition means, improving your skills. So you try to go over your limitations. And then, when you succed with it, you are more succsessfull. And if you do, what you love to do, even beside working, you will enjoy it, you will be relaxed, and you can show people what you've got so far. If they like it, they will "buy" it. So you succeed. If they don't like your stuff, just keep doing, what you love, and it will be better...  But do it for your joy

[facescar]

this is the best motivational lecture for me so far..

[lucywalker]

Everybody here is saying that this guy is underestimating smart people, and overestimating work--probably because its a ted-ed and it has a (generally) intelligent audience that was probably offended. But honestly based on just about every study you can find its true. Success is more about guts, confidence, and hours than it is about talent. It takes the average person 10, 000 hours to be REALLY incredible at something, even without an ounce of natural talent or skill. If you spend long enough improving and believing honestly that you will get there YOU WILL. You can be a terrible singer and end up in a musical if you devote all your time to lessons and listening. But it's tough, its hard work, and thats what I think he's saying.