Work Smart, Not Necessarily Hard

Anonymous 2m 578

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

Let’s talk about Jeff. He worked an hourly wage job at a local restaurant. No wait…he worked two jobs. Both were hourly wage jobs at two different restaurants. Minimum wage – both. He would show up to work every single day, walking 1 mile to the first job, and then 1.5 miles to the next job and then the almost 2.5 mile back home close to midnight. He would somehow manage to show up on time for every shift. He would do exactly as he was told, and would brown nose his boss and shift leaders. While at work, he would look up on a shitty online job postings for a 3rd job. Well, after continuing like this for a few months, he grew tired of one of his jobs. No wait…. He grew tired of his Co workers. Because they weren’t white and they couldn’t speak English. (Hint: they were Mexicans. Honest to God, hard working Mexicans). Ok…that wasn’t a hint.. That was a story reveal. Ok, back to Jeff. Jeff didn’t like his Co workers at one of the jobs, so he quit there. Now he had a problem…how would he sustain his lifestyle from just 1 job? So he started asking for more hours at the first job. Hours weren’t coming his way. So he got angry at the boss. We all know what happens when you get angry aft the boss…. He got more hours. Just kidding…he got fired. Now our guy has no job, no money and…. well…no prospects.

Forget Jeff for a minute.

Let’s talk about Elizabeth. She worked at the same restaurant as…. The guy we’re supposed to forget about for a minute. Elizabeth worked for minimum wage, worked her maximum hours, and kept just one job. She was focused on that one job only and so didn’t spend time fidgeting on her phone. She…believe it or not, rise to shift leader within a month. She’s no longer working minimum wage now. She gets an input into the weekly schedule and gets to establish proper relationships with her regular customers. One day, one of those regular customers brings a can of caramelised popcorn for her. She savors every last popped corn that night after her shift. She wants to repay the customer…but how? So she writes a small piece of poetry about a political opinion she shared with the best customer and gives it to the same customer the following week. Although the customer is intrigued by this untraditional gesture, he’s taken aback at her flow of words and thoughts. He offers her a job as a part-time writer for a neighborhood newsletter. Elizabeth communicates about this with her boss, and over the course of next 9 months, Elizabeth leaves the restaurant completely and transitions into working for a local magazine.

Ok. Good stories. Mediocre stories.. Whatever…can you answer the question?

Yes. Let me lay it out for you:

1. Work smart, not necessarily hard
2. Focus on the job at hand
   1. Avoid being the “you had one job” meme
3. Genuinely get along with your friends, colleagues, supervisors, etc.
   1. Try to establish relationships
4. Take care of your customers
   1. Be it in business or in job
5. Return favors and leverage those to land bigger favors
6. Never shut a door, even if you’re sure you won’t need it again
   1. Such is life. You never know what you’ll need and when
7. Always be creating content.

Source: https://www.quora.com/How-should-a-person-spend-his-spare-time-if-he-wants-to-become-rich/answer/Vardhman-Jain-73

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