02. Outwork Others

Smart work is good but the best in their trade or craft did not get there without putting in the hard yards.
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INSIGHT IV – OUTWORK OTHERS

Because I saw you come in!

Former NBA player and Duke standout Jason Williams shared the story of how he once prepped for a game against the Los Angeles Lakers when that team’s lineup consisted of none other than Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

“This is the championship”, Williams thought to himself the night before that game. “I’m going to get in the stadium at 3:00 am, and I’m going to make sure I make 400 shots before I go back to my room and sit in the sauna”

But Williams wasn’t the only one who had that idea.

When Williams walked into the stadium at 3:00 am, Kobe Bryant was already there, already drenched in sweat.

“I worked out for a good hour and a half”, William recalled, “I came off the court once I was done, sat on the side, and I could still hear a ball bouncing”

Williams was floored that Bryant was still working out, especially since he started before Williams arrived. He decided to unlace his shoes and watch Bryant not only from a strategic standpoint but also out of curiosity to see how long the former NBA ‘Most Valuable Player’ planned on continuing his rigorous workout.

“Another 25 minutes and he got done,” Williams recalls. “I think I’ve seen enough,” he remembers saying to himself.

That evening Bryant scored 40 points.

After the game Williams remembers talking with Bryant and asking him at one point, “Hey Kobe, why were you in the gym for so long this morning?”

Bryant smiled at him and said, “Because I saw you come in. I wanted you to know it doesn’t matter how hard you work. I’m willing to work harder than you. You inspire me to be better.”

Williams clearly recollects walking away thinking, ‘I need to start doing more.’

Understanding the ‘Outwork’ Paradigm

Who better than Kobe Bryant himself could explain the outwork paradigm better?

“To me, it just makes complete sense to push working boundaries. If your job is to be the best basketball player you can be, to do that you have to practice – you have to train, right? You have to train as much as you can, as often as you can. If you get up at 10 am, train at 12, for two hours, say from 12 to 2 pm, you have to let your body recover. So you eat, recover, get back out and let’s say start training again at 6 pm – from 6 pm to 8 pm – then you go home, you shower you eat dinner, you go to bed, and you do it all again. Those are two sessions.”

“Now imagine you wake up at 3 am, you train from 4 am to 6 am – come home, breakfast, relax. Then you’re back at it again – 9 am to 11 am – relax – then you’re back at it again – 2 pm to 4 pm, and then again from 7 pm to 9 pm. Look how much more training I have done by simply starting at 4 am. Now, you do that and as the years go on, the separation that you have from your competitors and your peers just grows larger and larger and larger and larger and larger, and by year five or six, doesn’t matter what kind of work they [competitors and peers] do, they’re never going to catch up. Because they’re five years behind.”

How to outwork the competition – and the odds against you

1. Don’t over-rely on your talents: Okay, so you’re terrific with numbers, or reading people or making great decisions under pressure. That’s good. Use them to your advantage. , but don’t make them a crutch either. Because talent alone isn’t enough. Remember, hard work beats talent if talent does not work hard.

2. Eschew shortcuts that prevent you from outworking: Look at your heroes, whoever it is that you look up to. There’s a good chance none of them got where they are by having things handed to them, or by having passive incomes or working single digit hours a week. You have to realise that hard work is your ticket to the top. And while hard work does not guarantee success 100%, there is no success without hard work. That’s guaranteed.

3. Pledge allegiance to the grind:
Promise yourself that no matter what happens, you will not be outworked.

A word on balance

It’s true that what will make you a success, or even a legend, is your work ethic. It’s also true that too much of a good thing isn’t all that good too.
Here are a couple of things you should never compromise on for the sake of career.

1. Valuable relationships (especially family).
Relationships are an inseparable part of life – your life support system. But relationships are built over time. You must invest into them or they’ll wilt away. Besides, people who have relationships outside of work bring fresh new perspectives and a deeper level of life satisfaction to their work. On the other hand, social isolation leads to destructive tendencies at work, affecting careers adversely.
Relationships help form a rich tapestry of life, and life would be that much worse without them. Shun them at your own peril.

2. Health.
Many people work so hard at their careers, that they sacrifice their health. Ironically, they must sacrifice their careers to work on their health. Nothing – absolutely nothing – is worth forfeiting awesome health enjoyed over a whole lifetime. And awesome health for a lifetime is a product of intentional effort.

Bottom line: Work hard as you should but play hard as you ought to too.

Conclusion

If you skim through the biographies of famous athletes, entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists, artists, you will realize that they all have one thing in common- their commitment to outworking everyone. Replace the names and their stories sound almost identical. They achieved that level of success after years of dedication and hard work. They strived to master their craft.

And here’s to having a strong outwork ethic!

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