Didn't we LEAVE "HARD WORK" to do this??? Why all the preaching about WORK REALLY HARD?

Work on your passion and Hard Work will be your fulfilling income not a job

I couldn't agree more. However, what's pretty much unavoidable, at least in the beginning, is that there's a fairly steep learning curve, and it's almost a given that hard work is required at this stage to get things going.

Great to know we are in sync! It doesn't have to be so difficult... glad you agree, whew I know there is alot of us who get it!

Work smart... not hard.

PhilTaylor77 - you betcha! Yet would you consider the possibility that any work done needs to be outcome focused, and as we can see some of our colleagues work very very hard without pre-defining the outcome, therefore hard work for the sake of "hard work" should also be combined with smart work?

How does one define hard work, exactly?

In a nutshell decide people need to decide what is "busyness" and what is "business" .

There is no such thing as hard work when it comes to Internet Marketing. I'd say being a programmer is the closest thing.

Go take a look at a Tiler or Concreter and then see what a web designer needs to do for the same pay....

If every single minute of the time you work goes to benefit you directly, rather than to fill the pockets of someone else why on earth wouldn't you work hard?

If i automate something it's to remove the unpleasant time consuming aspects of a job - which should allow me to achieve more in the same time.

Add to that the potential for every hour you spend to pay you over and over for some time to come, as opposed to performing an hour of work for someone else and get paid once for it, then why wouldn't you work as hard as you can?

Work hard now - Reap the rewards later. However, I will never work so hard to the detriment of my relationships.

So many points to agree with, namely:

Sal64 - work smart....not hard
Paulie888 - there is a steep learning curve in the early days

I think in the early days it's hard to work smart - you might not know how to yet. Your effort to output ratio is lower, because you're learning the ropes.

After a year you'll be able to work a lot smarter because you'll have learnt about the tools and systems you can engage to save you time - plus you can spend less time reading and learning, and spend more time doing! After another period of time you might outsource work to people and software - allowing you to do other 'work' or to have more free time.

Hard work is what you make it, but there is no escaping it, especially in the early days - just try to make it something you enjoy!

I agree. Honestly I don't see much difference between most WF's businesses and working a full-time job. They are glued to a blackberry, they work all the time, and they are trading time for money.

I guess for a lot of people they are happy to work the same, but with more flexibility. That's understandable. I have a different view. The advantage of owning a business is being able to leverage the work of others to create less for yourself. You ever just do busy work at a day job and think "I could pay someone $7/hour to do this for me?". Yet when most people working in their own business just happily do all these $7/hour tasks. It's insane.

I always tell people that it's foolish to work hard. Work smart instead. This might mean putting in the same amount of hours each day, but it's about efficiency.

That being said, I love working now. I can see the tangible benefits of my work every single day, and it drives me to do even more than I'm already doing.

First of all, where do you hear that you have to work hard?

I tell people they have to work "educated."

That means understanding what you're doing and how to do it.

Hard work is digging ditches or lifting heavy objects.

Problem is, we confuse the word hard with what running a home business
really is, at least for many people...intellectually challenging.

And yes, I've had this argument with a ton of people who insist that you
can be as dumb as a stump and run a successful home business.

But the truth is, unless you have mountains of money that you can throw
at people and say, "Here, run my business," you better have a head on
your shoulders, know how to think, learn how to research a niche, write
copy, emails, etc. and essentially develop some skills.

That is the hard part for many people. They simply don't have the
brains, patience or work ethic for this business...work as in putting in
the time to get done what needs to get done.

It isn't hard work. But for many people, it's difficult because of limited
brain power and/or pure laziness.

And no, I'm not talking about the kind of laziness where you don't want to
go out and dig or ditch, or in this case, type words on a computer. I'm
talking about the kind of laziness where people don't want to have to
work through a problem. Instead, they want somebody else to just do it
for them because it's too hard for them to have to think through the
problem.

And yes, there are some people who are literally too lazy to do a back
linking campaign or even submit an article to a dozen or so directories.

"What? I have to do these by hand because they don't support xyz
submitter?"

Yeah, God forbid they took the 15 to 20 minutes to do the submissions.

For these people this is hard work.

Sad, but true.

Bottom line: There is nothing physically hard about running a home
business unless you're working long hours (something you may have to
do if you either want quick results or don't have money for outsourcing)
or you have health issues that makes even typing a chore.

But neither of these have anything to do with the actually physical
difficulty of the business in general. The difficulty lies in the fact that
you can't be as dumb as a stump and run a successful business.

Contrary to what a lot of people here and elsewhere will tell you.

I know I didn't leave "hard work" behind.

I left "hard work I hated" behind for "hard work I enjoy."

That's the feudal system.

The caste system is more properly called the futile system.

I apologise for that, but come on, how often does one get that setup?

Here's the thing about work.

I love to work.

What I hate is doing tedious work, boring work, meaningless work. I don't want to struggle. I just want to work. I want to do the work I want to do, when I want to do it. Everyone does, really.

But if you don't want to do enough of the right kind of work, you are not going to get anywhere.

On some level, you have to enjoy what you do enough to get paid for your natural, normal tendency to work... or you have to do some tedious and boring work you'd rather not do.

That's the hard part. Finding something you enjoy that much. Once you do, it doesn't feel like work anymore. It feels like play. There was a time in my life that I felt that way writing. There was a time in my life that I felt that way programming. There was a time in my life I felt that way managing project teams.

Right now, I feel that way making products. And because I feel that way making products, I make some damn good products, just like I used to do some damn good writing and programming and managing.

But I sure as hell do work hard, because I don't know any other way to do it.

If you work on something that invigorates you it doesn't feel like work.

What people are really say with your quote is 'don't be lazy'

Interesting views all round...

I guess it comes down to personal choice, don't you think?

Some prefer to be hands on and keep themselves busy on the crackberry and all the latest gizmos.

Some work hard because they simply don't have a life. The insane work hard and spin wheels because they are inefficient. Heck... I even suspect that some will put in long hours for the sake of due to the guilt associated with not having a real job.

Whilst others, like me, prefer to automate things and spend as less time in front of the monitor as possible.

Great thread!

I do Tech. Support for my day job. Been at it for 11 1/2 years now. I haven't worked a day yet! I truly love what I do. I love helping people. I guess I'm atypical in my industry. When people describe their problem to me the best way they know how, I'm happy and excited to dig in and fix it or explain how something works.

One customer said to me once:
'So this is what you do? You sit there all day and listen to people's problems?'
'Yep!'
'Oh wow! I couldn't do that. I would go insane.'
'Oh, not me. I love this stuff! Call me strange.' : )

Lucky for me, I make decent money and I work in a strong industry that managed to survive The Great Recession... so far.

But I will say that I don't think I can ever work retail or fast food again. When I worked fast food: I had never worked so hard for the least amount of money.

This topic caught my eye. Yes, I have done a bunch of crap jobs in my life. I'll never really consider IM as a real hard thing. Anybody remember before internet commerce existed? Be (very) glad you do what you do.

Great post! I think the misconception is between the definition of "working hard" and "pursuing your passion"......

My motto is "Work hard and Play hard" I have tried the 4 hours work week. Love the book, love the concept, but could not work 4 hours per week. I love work. I love the learning and the challenge. I just want to have the freedom to stop working when I want to, and live anywhere in the world. That is what Internet Marketing provides me.

First, there is a big difference between a JOB and WORK. Many people have a job but are not really working. They just show up for their Job daily and move through certain routine.

Work on the other hard can be fulfilling. To get anything tangible done requires hard work. I think continuous hard work without fulfillment, because you are not making enough money, no freedom and to no play result in work fatigue. They call it "burnout" this days. That is what people have in the rat race. People do not burnout because of hard work but from their "JOB" and lack of result, it just manifest in burnout.

Well I just learned a secret that NO one tells us when we start out... new posting to follow...

Hard work is all for nothing if you don't also work smart!

There is an old Japanese proverb that says:

"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."

They are great words to live by!

fisrt think is you must believe...

Even if you work smart, you still have to work hard.

Naturally you want to focus on just the essential stuff you are doing and eliminate/automate/outsource the stuff you don't want to concentrate to.

But still ... you need to work hard on the essential part too. For example, if you are producing content, you should provide the best quality stuff and going the extra mile on top of that.

At least, this is how I understand hard work in this context. I don't know about you, but it takes some work for me to do this

Everything worth having need so sort of effort to get it. IM offers people a different choice, and everyone are welcome to join the game plan. But in order to win in time game, you need to know the rules and have enough skills to play. That's the "work" part come from.

The working in IM is providing values to others, and have people to make up their mind to pay you the cash for your information. However if you stay in a job, you stay in a job forever, you need to listen to your boss, handle customer's complain. and at the end, you become broke and just have enough to make a living.

IM do need work, but you have to ask yourself. Whether it's worth it or not.