The Business Edit: Declutter and Organize your Business

Unpopular Opinion: The Harder you Work the Less you Make

Mar 19, 2024

22:24

I grew up on a farm in the midwest, so I'm very familiar with the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality, and I don't shy away from doing work that's hard. HOWEVER, and this is a big however, we do not live in the time economy anymore. In the time economy, the more hours you put in, the more money you make. This was the height of the industrial revolution and where we got the lovely 40 hour work week. But now, we live in a knowledge economy, where it doesn't matter how many hours you work. You get paid for the value that you bring to the table, and this is true for many 9-5 jobs but also for freelancers and service providers.

And yet, so many of us still fall into the trap of believing that in order to reach our goals, business or otherwise, we better work hard or else. It seems almost sacrilegious to say that working hard isn't something to be valued since our society puts so much emphasis on it, but there will come a point in your business or really any area of your life where working harder won't help you get better results. Everything has a tipping point, and the law of diminishing returns applies to this situation as well.

I don't think we stop often enough to ask ourselves, "how could this be easier?" because we assume and prematurely accept that it's going to be hard. And today, I want to share why I believe that working hard won't help you make more money in your business as a service provider. In fact, I strongly believe that the least effort your business requires of you, the more successful you'll ultimately be. It seems counterintuitive at first, but I hope to change your mind!

SHOW NOTES: jadeboyd.co/the-harder-you-work-the-less-you-make/

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Episode 19: Is the 40 Hour Work Week Really Productive?
Effortless, by Greg McKeown
Episode 66: Are Your Services Priced to Scale?
Episode 34: How to Align your Business to your Strengths with Arica Ohloff

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