The Harder You Work, the Luckier You Get: An Entrepreneur's Memoir

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Each of them, I felt, honored me by taking an interest in me. I learned social skills that many other young men, who knew only school and sports, didn’t learn, and that gave me an advantage. They helped to shape me and also, I would realize later, to shape my ideas on how a business owner should treat their employees. Those who support the statement would argue that hard work is the key to success. Working hard towards reaching a goal requires dedication, discipline, and endurance, all of which are necessary for the achievement of any goal. It is also true that those who are willing to put in the effort are more likely to be successful than those who are not. Furthermore, hard work can open up new opportunities, as it can lead to recognition and increase an individual's chances of promotion or finding better job prospects. At the time it really did begin to feel like a hopeless situation, but I knew that I had to persevere, and one thing that this period of my life taught me was to take something away from every experience, and what I took away from this episode was also life-changing.

Thrilled as I was to have that factory income, I learned that I was going to have to find another way to be thrilled, because the work was not the kind I wanted. That was further motivation to get through college, even though the classes were difficult for me and my progress was slowing. I kept shifting time away from earning credit hours so I could earn more money to pay for them, which meant I fell behind the other students. I will never forget that first day. The pride. This was our own office, the office of the business we ourselves had started, and our business was to be honest brokers. We weren't padding our commissions or taking our customers' money in ways I didn't think was right. We were not going to cut corners. We could establish the type of operation and destiny we believed in.

Step 1: Take advantage of lucky breaks generated by hard work

In 1955 a version in the family of maxims is used by a popular actress and singer in musical theatre. Beyond the world of sports the expression is embraced by some in the world of show business [EMS]: Ten years ago, John and Andrea sold their successful business and moved to a small beach community. They rented for a year while their new home was being built, during which time they spent most of their time overseeing the construction, getting to know the community as full time residents, not as visitors, and involving themselves in local activities. John became active with the country club and Andrea became a volunteer firefighter. After the house was completed, the both felt they needed more to do so John got his real estate license and joined a brokerage. Andrea began painting. Fast forward six years, when they felt what they were doing still wasn't satisfying enough so they bought a restaurant from a local who wanted to retire.

In 1966 the expression is used by the golfer Billy Casper after he has played a round of golf with his nine-year-old son Billy Jr. while preparing for a tournament [BCS]: As I got older, of course, I had to give up that kind of freedom. And by the time I was a senior in high school, I knew that what I wanted was to go away to college, not stay in town and get a job. As one of my friends from Nebraska City liked to say, it was a great place to grow up and then a great place to get away from. I’d had enough of a place where everybody knew everybody else, where there were eyes and expectations everywhere. Of course, I know it would be work, work, work, but this work would be an adventure. There was no class you could take to explain how to succeed as a broker in the new age of negotiated commissions. No one to tell us what to do. We had to get out there with our brains and our strength and make it succeed. We were the first beaver trappers in an unknown river valley. In my heart, I believed,

Step 3: Build the right team and get comfortable with delegating

I've never been embarrassed about having streaks in my drawers. You know, it's all part of growing up." But the version that Barber is quoted saying does not contain the word “practice”. Indeed, the version Barber uses invokes “hard work” and that variant appears more than a decade earlier in 1949 as shown further below. It is possible that Barber also used a version of the maxim containing the word “practice”, and Gary Player heard or was told of that version.