The reality in the modern world is that hard work pays, it is the reason many individuals spend long hours pouring their energies into their work in the pursuit of success. Amazingly, to work their way up through life starting from school to the working phase of their life; their source of delight is in putting in the hours and hope that their smarts and intelligence will help them achieve the success.
However, the smartest and the most hardworking people in the world hardly achieve success. We often expect them to be the “game changers”, but yet somehow, we hardly hear about them. To the smart and hardworking people who labour every day without a glimpse of success, life is scandalous and unfair.
Here are seven reasons why a smart and hard working person may not always be successful.
1. Poor Business Networking Skills
It is always more comfortable to stick with the people one has known for years. In the modern era, success depends on the quality and quantity of your network.
Having old friends and acquaintances is good, but meet new people will expand your mental horizons into new opportunities and ways of doing things. It can be tough at first meeting new people but by making small deliberate steps will get you on the right track.
Start by attending networking events to develop strong networking skills and undertaking personal development courses whose the primary goal is to interact with new people. You might be surprised how easy success can be to achieve by broadening your horizons.
2. Poor Adaptation Skills
Smart individuals always have a hard time adapting to new situations. In the present age, there are changes everywhere forcing the populace to have high adaptability skills. Staying in the same environment, and shielding oneself from change, means that there is increased chances of difficulty when working with elements in new as well as changing circumstances.
Failure to adapt to new situations makes the smart and hardworking people mere relics of the past or a different era with no relevance to present circumstances an example is hardworking companies with smart products like Kodak and Nokia, became relics that have an impact on memories or museums. However, change is a chance to embrace new opportunities with room for continuous innovation.
To ensure that all the hard work you have put in do not go to waste, make the best of every situation by figuring out how your skills and intelligence can coexist in new circumstances. There are also best personal development books that you can read to acquire and hone your adaption skills. Have an open mind on new concepts in your environment to progress and succeed in a changing environment.
The most successful people like Richard Branson, Warren Buffet, Bill Gate, et al. are masters of adaptability and they have achieved their success by accepting change.
3. They are relatively risk averse
Close to 90% of the smart population is risk averse and would rather stick to the paths set by previous generations and peers have identified as the sure way to get ahead in life. The modern world is full of scenarios that require risk taking to achieve success in life in less time and better.
There are two types of risks, calculated risk, and blind risks. Smart individuals who work extremely hard end up getting frustrated; they take blind risks to get a jab of excitement in their lives, which is a source of mental health problems. This usually leads to long-term effects that are often disastrous. Calculated risks, on the other hand, have a potential of loss but have a greater potential of success.
Smart, hardworking people will opt for neither of the two types and as a result, they get a stuck in a rut chasing success they will never find. Instead, one ought to focus on making calculated risks by weighing each outcome of an action. Think about the state of your life will be five or ten years from today if you do not take the risk.
4. Credentials Guarantee Success
Studies have shown that people who are good at school have the mentality that credentials are a sure way to achieving success and it is a rude awakening when success is still elusive decades later even with all their impressive credentials. Hardworking and smart people are used to being on the top and claim that they deserve success based on their intelligence levels or the schools they attended.
Results matter more than credentials matter more than credentials. For proper work-life balance in the modern age, strategic thinking and working smart matters more than credentials ever will when gunning for success.
5. Find it hard to follow through with decisions
Being a smart and hard working person can open up the potential to many employment opportunities. Having many options is not particularly with, just like having no options at all, which makes the smart and hard working person poor in making and committing to a decision. This leads to decreased self-discipline in following things through and leads to frustration.
Planning is a sure way to increase your self-discipline since there is a clear goal, one knows what they have to do, and the actions need to be successful. Research and talk to other successful people, make a decision, and endeavor to attain self-disciplined in attaining your targets.
6. Always seeking the next best thing
Smart and high achieving people detest wasting time and they are aware of the value of their time. They dub into multi-tasking looking for the next big thing, and they usually miss the bigger picture especially in attaining work-life balance. This leads to high chances of things not following through even though it is a strong attribute.
Patience is a necessary attribute when starting out in a new field especially when the going gets tough. For success, focus your efforts on one goal and you will realize much better results and a lesser time to achieving success in life.
7. Lack Self-Confidence
Many smart people in the world have problems in being confident in their abilities, which doctors have traced to a poor state of mental health. This makes them their worst critics, and no matter how hard they work, they cannot believe they are capable of accomplishing the best they can. They also tend to have extremely high standards in regards to their work or projects.
Scrutinizing every aspect of a project increases the time spent on the projects they are working on which means more resources spent. Seeking perfection also hinders the individual from moving forward when the time is right only to realize that the time is far-gone and success is not in their grasp.
Getting started and disregarding negative and perfectionist thoughts will get you ahead and a step towards achieving success as well as personal growth and development.
The Keys to Success
Successful people have a habit where they work to ensure that they achieve personal growth and development. They set new standards when they realise that things are not working out. This is after evaluating their lives, and taking calculated risks in changing their habits and having the self-discipline to doing what they have is required of them until they achieve success.
Have a timeline to your goals and clearly marking out the actions that need execution at a particular time. Step out of the comfort zone and take calculated risks, associate with new people, try new hobbies, and pursuing everything that will get you out of your routine.
Create time for exercise physically and mentally to enable relaxation, refocusing, and rejuvenate your mind on the goal at hand. All work without play will make you grumpy, unmotivated, and further from achieving success.
Be prepared to work smart not just hard. Working smart involves spending time working on ideas and strategies that will give more results to your project or work, instead of slaving away working hard in the same routine that has hardly changed for decades. Working smart will expose you as someone who is innovative, driven, and hungry for success in life. More people relate to people who work smart instead of hard. Working smart also calls for partnerships and teamwork, and it is a guaranteed way to achieve success.