Work hard, don't complain about it!

Final battle from the movie Matrix Revolutions when Neo is fighting with Agent Smith

Agent Smith: “You can’t win. It’s pointless to keep fighting! Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you persist?”

Neo: “Because, I choose to.”

Well, he persisted because that is what he chose for that is what was under his control.

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Probably, one of the oldest maxims of all times, but has stood the test of time. It is simple, Work Hard. I would just want to give a little spin to it – work hard, and don’t complain about it. And why do I say so?

Because working hard (with a singular focus) never fails, it might not produce results at your desired time, but it would manifest somewhere in some form. How do I know it? Well, I know it because I’ve seen it first-hand. In my own case, when I look back, I realize that I got all the things that I worked hard for. And I haven’t seen a single person around me working hard and still going down in life. If anybody tells you that they know a person who worked tremendously hard and still failed, you need to look for the smoking gun. A failure to do so could only happen if a person had zero talent or interest for the task at hand but still kept on striving for it (for reasons best known to him).

Just to cite an example, it would be prudent to believe that a person who gets into IIT would’ve some basic amount of grey matter. At the same time, I know a lot many people who didn’t make the final cut into IIT - for lack of a better word/phrase - out of sheer bad luck. Also, at the end of the day, it’s a zero-sum game. But I can also say at the same time that I know a few of my friends and cousins who wouldn’t have made to IIT even if they would’ve tried hard for years. Not that they were unintelligent, just that their basic fundamentals in Physics, Chemistry or Maths were not up to the mark, and a lot of other variables (some of them even out of their control) were pulling them down. So, such endeavours were almost always bound to fail.

The simple point is that people who are innately hard working get results for their hard work, without fail, in some form or the other. No hard work in life goes for a waste. If not for anything, it makes you wiser.

But yes, time is never a factor. It can take weeks, months, or decades, but relentless hard work always manifests.

And why not complain about it. Because of two reasons.

First, it doesn’t help anybody. It doesn’t help you – if you’re working hard for something that you wish for, then why complaint in the first place. All it does that it shakes your own belief towards your goal. You in a way are demeaning yourself. Also, complaining is a bad habit – people who get used to it can’t help themselves and such people are not difficult to spot. They are almost everywhere, work place, play grounds, house parties, everywhere.

Second, if you complain – nobody bothers. Possibly your parents, and closest family members (at best) might understand your plight. They would empathize. Nobody else would or could any which way. But please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suggesting you to not discuss your problems. Do that - but they have to be objective in nature, so that somebody could really help. If there is no chance of getting help, then why even whine in the first place?

If you think deeply, you would realize that your hard work is possibly the only variable in life that is under your control. Nothing else is under your control.

So, work hard. Don’t complaint about it.