Working Hard & Smart

I somehow came to enjoy promoting GNLD products and convincing people to join the company under my name. Among the people I tried to draft into the company were my high school classmates. I have to however confess that I had a bad day trying to coax some of them to get into GNLD.
When I invited my high school deskmate Martin Wamoni to the company's classy warehouse in downtown Nairobi for instance, I felt nervous on my way to meet him. And from the way I presented myself and the company, I doubt whether he was impressed with GNLD and with what I was doing. Little wonder that he didn't bother to join the company.
In May of that year when we reopened for the second term at Starehe Institute, I decided to do away with network marketing and instead concentrate on my studies. And that turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made since the computer programming skills I acquired in the institute have wonderfully enriched my life.
Although I have long since ceased doing business with GNLD, I treasure what I learnt in the few months I was part and parcel of the company. I learnt the value of health and wealth as well as picked up a passion for reading motivational books.
During one session with fellow GNLD marketers back in 2006, I remember one of them informing us that 5% of the world's population own 95% of the world's wealth. While I am unsure if that is accurately true, I felt inspired by that message to be rich one day, a dream I am yet to realize more than 12 years later.
I also recall one senior GNLD marketer advising us, "Don't work hard. Work smart!"
Somehow, I liked that idea of working smart during my time in GNLD. But in later years, I came to detest the term "smart work" so much that I avoided it in my speaking and writings. Instead, I preferred sticking to the term "hard work."
Recently though, I have discovered some sense in the term "smart work". I now believe that success is working both hard and smart at what we enjoy and are good at. And do you know what I think the difference between "hard work" and "smart work" is?
Well, if you are smart enough to visit this blog of mine, I am sure you've heard of the terms "pure mathematics" and "applied mathematics", haven't you? Counterpointing those two university subjects with the terms "hard work" and "smart work", I would say hard work is pure mathematics while smart work is applied mathematics.
I have said so because when I was pursuing engineering at JKUAT a decade ago, I noted that mathematics is extensively applied in the making of electronic gadgets. If you enjoy using your smartphone, just know some mathematics was put into use in its design and development.
Can you see how pure mathematics, though boring to most people, leads to amazing results when applied in the making of a smartphone? In the same way, hard work may appear boring but when applied smartly (smart work), it leads to success.
Just as pure mathematics comes before applied mathematics, so does hard work come before smart work. That's why I have said success is both working hard and smart at what we enjoy and are good at. So in the words of Hill Harper, "believe in yourself, work hard, work smart and passionately present your best self to the world." Adieu!
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