“The extra mile is a vast, unpopulated wasteland.” – Jeff Haden
People like to talk about work ethic. It’s one of the core things that we value. Questioning someone’s work ethic is considered by almost everyone to be a huge insult. Any suggestion that we lack work ethic is a personal affront.
And lots of people do work hard. They get up early, go to work, do stuff all day, then go home and do more stuff. They’re busy doing stuff all day, and for the most part they’re doing that stuff as well as they think they can.
There are limits, however. Most people might say they’re willing to work hard, but what they mean is that they’re willing to work hard as long as they can stay in their comfort zones. They’ll do whatever they’re willing to do, but if they’re asked to be uncomfortable, they’ll either refuse or just do as little as they can get away with. Then they retreat back to safety.
And, unfortunately, even within those comfort zones there are limits. While most people like to consciously think of themselves as hard workers, the reality is that in practice most people only work as hard as they need to. Nobody brags about doing the bare minimum, but there are a lot of people out there doing just that.
The worst part is that leaders aren’t exempt. The world is full of leaders who work hard as long as they’re in their comfort zones, and even then they aren’t working as hard as they could. They’re mostly getting by and hoping nobody notices.
Please don’t equate “working hard” with “working lots of hours”. I’m not suggesting people could put more into their careers or businesses only by working 18-hour days for 40 years. That’s not sustainable.
What I’m suggesting is that for all of our talk about work ethic, we want to be comfortable, and we don’t want to do any more than we absolutely have to. At the same time, we want things to get better. We want to have these great careers where we accomplish great things and make tons of money, but we don’t want to have to be uncomfortable or push ourselves very hard.
You can’t have it both ways. If you want to be a great leader, and you want to have an impact, and you want to have a career in which you achieve what you’re capable of, then you have to push yourself to get uncomfortable and to go beyond the minimum requirement.
Ask yourself: What am I NOT doing right now that I need to in order to succeed? Answer the question, then get to work.
