Greetings!
Do you know the saying "Work Smarter, Not Harder"? Do you subscribe to it? Most of you would say "Yes", right? Well, I don't! I seriously think that the saying "Work Smarter, Not Harder" has done humanity a grave injustice, and here's why. First, I'd like you to examine what comes to your mind when the word "lazy" is said or presented to you. Do you see a bum lying on the street corner with beer bottles all around him? Or does an impression of one of your co-workers or one of your staff come to mind? What do you feel when those impressions are sensed? Contempt? Disgust? Indignation? Now, what comes to your mind if I say "slothful"? Do pictures akin to those for "lazy" appear? Yes, I see your heads nodding. Now, picture someone who is busy the whole day doing this, that and the other, and who always seems to be buried in work. The work is routine and mundane, but highly necessary for the proper functioning of the company. How many of you would say that this person is slothful? Are you puzzled, indignant, perhaps? I might say that this person is slothful. I would say that if this person has been doing the same job year in and year out at the same frenzied pace, being in control but simply maintaining the status quo, this person is totally and utterly slothful! Wait a minute, you say, isn't this person the personification of diligence, what every employer wishes all his staff were, someone who would be given certificates of commendation at company townhouse meetings, but be too busy working to be there to receive them? Yes, a representative would step up and receive the accolade on this person's behalf, and the Department Head or equivalent would wax lyrical about what a model employee this person is. What do you mean this person is slothful, Elijah? Well, I mean exactly that. I mean that this person gives the notion of "hard work" a bad name. I mean that this person is an insult to your competence as an employer. I say all that because I know that creativity and resourcefulness are not the privileges of an ordained few, but are common to man. I also know that being creative and resourceful involves some pretty hard work, two of the main ones being thinking and experimenting. To illustrate, suppose I were a drawer of water in ancient times, and a small train of 20 camels has just arrived at my city. The only source of water for those thirsty camels, and the traders that accompany them, is the city spring. To get to the water, I need to walk down twenty steps, fill my five-litre waterpot and climb twenty steps back to the surface, where I can then pour the five litres of water into a drinking trough. Now, if each camel can drink forty litres of water at one go, how many trips down and up again would I need to make, just to water the camels? One hundred and sixty round trips! Now suppose a similar camel train arrives at my city every other day for the next five years and I do the same thing time after time, would you say that I am valuable, diligent worker, promote me and increase my pay? No, you would continue to pay me the same denarius per day! And the reason would of course be that I have not increased my value to you, my employer. I have not increased my value to you, my employer, because I have not engaged in those valuable pastimes of creativity and resourcefulness, both of which require the hard work of thinking. It is such hard work that eventually produced the aqueduct, the qanat, the hose and the pump. Do you think their inventors sat around all day just visualizing stuff? No, they spent the whole day visualizing stuff and working on them at the same time! Very often, this was during or after they completed other work which they needed to do as well! Now those are workers to whom I would not hesitate to give their share of the profits, and that is after their basic wages. When I was serving in field training units, a very common phrase that was bandied about by those like me, who elected to remain in the field as much as possible, was "Out here no need to think". Talk about being slothful! Many of my comrades could not understand why I made frequent trips to the SAFTI library to borrow books or journals whenever I could. They did not comprehend what I was doing when I tried to engender changes for the better. I realize now that by uttering the phrase "Out here no need to think", I myself was being hampered in my own thought flow. Words do have power to influence our thoughts, actions and habits. Now that I know better, I have become a little more careful with the words I use. Constantly use words to build up, as it is so easy to tear down. By now, you would have understood that it is not "Work Smarter, Not Harder". Rather, we ought to be saying "I will work as hard as I can. When I am fully engaged, ways of working smarter will come to me. I can then adapt and adopt them, and increase my value to all my stakeholders". In simple English, we ought to be saying instead: Work Harder AND Smarter! Only then will we truly be able to Make Things Happen! And only then will we embark on our journey towards Achieving Personal Significance! Have a great week ahead!
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