Should you work hard or work smart? A question that we keep hearing often, isn’t it?
Over the years, I notice that the number of people preferring “smart work” over “hard work” has increased considerably. But then, what exactly is smart work?
We all know what hard work is; pretty much dedicating ourselves to the activity and doing everything that is required to complete the task. How about smart work? Can that also be expressed in such simple terms? I decided to seek an answer from the many people who I come across; the group varied from college students to CEO and many in between.
These are some of the definitions I got for smart work – copying successful methods, increasing efficiency, using shortcuts, using more mental efforts than physical; some went on to say that hard work is donkey’s work, but smart works makes you the King. With seemingly no clear definition on the way, I started thinking about the working methods of people who I knew of; successful professionals who I thought were either hard workers or smart workers.
Having been around sales, using it in different forms, for long, I chose to pick two successful sales persons; below is the comparison. Both are men and work in the IT industry, selling similar services.