Success Advice
4 Principles That Convey What Working Hard & Smart Really Means
Everybody who has looked on social media for some inspiration has come across the quote, “Don’t work hard, work smart”. When you scroll down to the comment section under the post you find people commenting; ‘why not do both?’ These people couldn’t be more accurate than proposing to work hard and smart at the same time. But still, this description to achieve success is still vague and it doesn’t give you any practical advice. Everyone has his or her own definition about working hard and being smart, so what does this exactly mean?
The phenomenon that provides a clear answer to these vague descriptions about working hard and smart is called deliberate practice. Simply said, deliberate practice is the conscious decision to better yourself every day and it separates the successful from the unsuccessful people. Thankfully, deliberate practice has nothing to do with being gifted or being born in the right environment. It has everything to do with working smart and hard…but the right way.
Below are 4 principles that convey what working ‘hard & smart’ really means:
1. Focus on specific aspects
Don’t try to become better at everything all at once. Instead, focus on the areas that you need to improve. One thing many successful people are able to do is separate their strengths from their weaknesses so that they get a clear and truthful overview of their capabilities. To get a good overview of your own capabilities, ask people who are close to you to their opinions on what your best qualities are and in which other areas you can improve.
Furthermore, also reflect back on your own journey to find out what went well and where things got difficult. By really targeting the areas you need to improve, you’ll be a lot more efficient and therefore you will make much more progress than just improving something based on your intuition.
“Life is about growing and improving and getting better.” – Conor McGregor
2. Practicing creates progress
If you’re an athlete and you need to improve your physique, go to the gym more often. If you’re an entrepreneur and you need to become more skilled in a certain area, practice more. The only way to become better at something is to repeat the process, until you don’t want to do it anymore. And even then you still have to be disciplined enough to do the same thing over and over again.
Every successful person had to focus on his/her craft first before they could show to the world how great they were. It’s only when you’ve trained or practiced something enough that your skill level will become above-average. Otherwise you’ll just be good, not great. Lasting success won’t come easy and it certainly won’t come to you when you decide to quit when times get hard.
3. Find someone who is better
This is very important to achieve success much faster. Every person who has become immensely successful had someone they could learn from. Tiger Woods & Wolfgang Mozart had their fathers as mentors. Warren Buffet was being mentored by Alexander Graham to become known as the ‘Oracle of Omaha’.
These mentors were like teachers to them. They always saw room for improvement in their protégé’s and they made sure they didn’t make the same mistakes as they did. So, essentially they reduced the learning curve and therefore they progressed much faster than when without a mentor.
Luckily, in today’s world it’s not necessary anymore to find a person who has already accomplished what you want to achieve. So many successful people in all areas of life have written down what they did and how they did it. If you can’t find a real-life mentor use books as a reflection on your own process. Study the processes of the people who are authorities in your niche and try to associate it to your own journey.
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward
4. It takes mental focus
Hustling isn’t supposed to be fun if you’re doing it the right way. You have to make sacrifices, you have to overcome obstacles, you need to practice until the point that you want to quit, and you have to deal with people’s misunderstandings and misconceptions of your behavior.
These are just a few obstacles of the many that you’ll face when you’re on the road to success. That’s why you need to be mentally strong, because if you get scared easily by all these different distractions, then becoming successful will be even harder than it already is.
What are your thoughts on the saying “Don’t work hard, work smart?” Leave your thoughts below!
Image Courtesy of Twenty20.com
Success Advice
How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements
Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.
Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.
There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.
Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.
Embed the strength of AI and ML.
AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.
Bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.
ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses.
In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.
Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities
Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased.
Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information.
Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place.
In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.
Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development
You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.
You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.
Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.
Developing key skills to achieve goals
Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.
Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.
Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.
Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.
Development/Coding Knowledge
Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.
Hacking proof framework
There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.
Communication Abilities/Soft Skills
Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:
Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.
Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.
Agile Implementations
It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.
Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy
A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.
- Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds.
- Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
- Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
- Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them.
- Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.
Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy
Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.
- Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
- Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
- Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.
Conclusion
There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.
Success Advice
Understanding the Power of Yes and No: How to Create Boundaries For Success
These words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds
The two smallest yet most powerful words in life, “Yes” and “No,” have a big impact on our growth on both personal and professional levels. In addition to affecting the choices we make every day, these words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds. (more…)
Motivation
From Couch Potato to Go-Getter: A Step-by-Step Motivation Plan for Everyone
By understanding what motivates you, you can turn your dreams into reality
Are you tired of feeling like a couch potato? Do you want to transform your life and become a go-getter? You’re not alone! Many people struggle with motivation, but the good news is that change is possible. (more…)
Success Advice
10 Micro Financial Habits for More Wealth and Peace of Mind
The World Economic Forum still reports that half of U.S. adults lack financial literacy
You’ve heard about developing financial habits, but what about micro-financial habits? Micro habits are the tiny things you can do every day with minimal effort that, together, transform your future. (more…)
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