Hard Work

There is no substitute in the world, for the industriousness of a man. There are no shortcuts, no quick paths, no untroubled glades by which to circumvent this most demanding edict. Intelligence is unhelpful, unsuccessful genius is almost a proverb, wealth is no panacea, squandered wealth is also a proverb, and wisdom is a resource unavailing, the poor and wise are cliché in many stories.

I do not disparage all these other elements, I do not say that they are unnecessary, but rather that they are rendered nugatory by the absence of hard work. The other attributes are attributes of potential, they are the acorn seed with all the potential of the oak within, but are not and can never be, the means by which the seed may be bought to germination.

I have only slowly come to grips with the nature of hard work in the world. For many years, I have been fortunate. coasting by on the wings of my intelligence, and have scrapped through many a situation, worse for the close calls endured. I found enough leeway to scrape by, and scrape I chose to, confident that I could always get away in the same manner.

It has taken me two years of university to realize that this cannot be, and that the margin for error now has grown tragically thin. And I understand that the only way to reclaim that margin is through work. The focused mind, the discipline, the desire that accompany hard work will enable me to transcend the limitations that I labour under, but it comes with the accompanying understanding that it will, if it can be harnessed, lead to much greater and better things.

Its not an easy thing, to be so always proudly lazy and unapplied to change my course so radically will require great stubbornness of mind, a trait that I know I have not been blessed with, and a heartfelt desire to achieve the results. I know now thought that I have potential greater then I have ever exhibited to this date, that I have let myself down by not pushing to the greatest extent my boundaries and limitations, and to truly try and transcend not the examiners and the markers, but myself. To push my abilities to their maximum and to endure the inevitable failures that are on the horizon, but to fight back their down heartening effect and to rise again messianically, to fight another day.

I do not know whether such a program can succeed but I mean to find out.