Sweet are the fruits of labour
By Taru Bahl

“THERE is no substitute for hard work”. “Practice makes a man perfect”. “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou earn bread”. All these maxims reiterate the belief that its plain hard work that does it! Just as a person cannot learn spelling by sitting atop a dictionary, one cannot develop a capacity to do anything without hard work. When we see professionals be it doctors, engineers or architects executing their professional tasks like master craftsmen, we must acknowledge that its not because they are plain lucky or that their road to success is any smoother. If it appears easy, it is because they have mastered the fundamentals of whatever they are doing. Success for them is the result of believing in asking how much work and not how little work; how many hours and not how few hours. Even if today time saving devices are available aplenty, one cannot dispense with or substitute hard work altogether.
The best musicians practice every day. Aristotle said, “we are what we repeatedly do”. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. Excellence and perfection cannot be attributed to luck. They are the result of unstinted hard work and practice. They make a person better at all that he does. Hard work has to be both a beginning and an end in itself. The harder a person works, the better he feels and the better he feels, the harder he works. The best ideas will remain dreams and figments of one’s imagination unless one finds ways of implementing and translating them into reality. And for doing that one must be prepared to labour hard, to experiment, make mistakes, redo, relearn and work tirelessly.
Great talent is rendered useless and ineffective without will power, determination and hard work. Nothing comes easy. What does is either an illusion or a short-term advantage. To make it last, one must be prepared to sweat it out. Nature, afterall gives birds their food but does not give them a ready made option — that of placing it strategically in their nest. A butterfly has to learn how to spread out its wings and fly out on its own. Premature attempts at escaping or taking help from external sources will lead only to its falling to death. One has to go through the rigours of trial and error and of climbing the ladder one step at a time before one can reach the top and exclaim to the world, “I have arrived”. As children we learn to first turn over, then sit up, crawl, walk and finally run. One cannot sprint straight out of the incubator. Each step is important. No step can be skipped. In school we study maths before algebra and algebra before calculus. We cannot possibly do calculus until we have grasped the basics of algebra. To quote Steven Covey, “we have to know and accept this step-by-step process in physical and intellectual areas because things are seen and constant evidence supplied. But in other areas of human development and in social interaction we often attempt to short-cut natural processes — substituting expediency for priority, imitation for innovation, cosmetics for character, style for substance and pretense for competence. We often skip some vital steps to save time and effort and still hope to reap the desired rewards”. So there really are no short cuts in the development of professional skills, of talents like piano playing, of developing personality traits like public speaking or of building strength of mind and character.
Milton rose every morning at 4 am to write his opus, Paradise Lost. It took Noah Webster 36 years to compile Webster’s Dictionary. The story of Thomas Alva Edison is not that of a genius but of one who would never give up. Who had the ability to work single mindedly in the face of rejection and great adversity. Of one who lost complete track of time as he immersed his body, spirit, mind and soul into his work. Edison dropped out of school when his teacher called him “addled”. However his mother continued teaching him at home where he set up his own chemical lab. At the age of 12 he took up a job as a sandwich and peanut salesman to earn money for chemicals and equipment. He moved his lab into a baggage car and after buying a small printing press, started putting out the first newspaper ever published on a moving train. He was thrown off the train when his chemicals burst into flames and set the baggage car on fire. At the age of 22 he moved to New York, penniless but determined to make a living as an inventor. Several months later he received $ 40,000 for improvements he made on the stock ticker and with this windfall he launched his long inventing career. He worked practically non-stop to patent more than 1000 inventions over the years. Surely these qualify for being classic cases of hard work leading up to concrete results.
Mahatma Gandhi felt that the wealth which came without work was nothing short of a sinful gain. Today, the practice of getting something for nothing or more for less is not just commonly accepted but greedily, mercilessly, shamelessly sought after. Nobody bats an eyelid at the gross manipulation of markets and assets provided there are advantages, favours and benefits to be availed of. Professions are being built around making wealth without working, amassing money by violating tax laws and social norms, twisting regulations to benefit from subsidies and free government programmes.
The young generation wants it all quick. What wouldn’t they give to skip the period of struggle, uncertainty, discomfort and denial ? They don’t mind compromising on their values, beliefs and honour so long as they can make it big.Young married couples no longer find it charming to set up there home bit by little bit, dreaming, working hard, saving, prioritising, planning and buying one household item at a time. They want it all and real fast too. So whether it is a microwave, Maruti car, air conditioner, plush sofa, Kashmiri carpet or designer clothes they take short cuts, beg, borrow, run hefty credit card bills and even make an extra buck on the sly to shorten the waiting period.
People who tirelessly slog in a ’straight’ manner are often laughed at. They are supposed to be the proverbial slow coaches who are archaic, not savvy, unrelenting and plain stupid. But one couldn’t be further from the truth. Forget successful entrepreneurs, scientists, Nobel Laureates, acclaimed writers, painters and musicians, even happy families who brave rough weather together, emerging stronger and closer, swear by hard work, diligence and devotion towards duty.
The Hidden Treasure is a fable which reinforces the importance of toiling hard before one can enjoy the fruits of one’s labour. An old farmer had three young and strong sons. But they were all lazy, given to a life of sloth and convenience. Wanting everything on a platter they abhorred any activity which called for physical or mental effort. One day the farmer announced, “there is treasure buried in the field. Find it and share the booty.” Enthusiastic at the prospect of an easy lottery, they set out digging up the huge field. But failed to unearth the treasure. The father gently said, “never mind. Since the field has been dug why not sow it with corn.” So they sowed the field. Luckily for them it rained well that year. The corn ripened and there was a bumper crop. The father told the by now enlightened sons, “this is life’s true treasure. If you are prepared to work this hard, you will find such treasures year after year”.
Hard work has the ability to change scars into stars. Haven’t we seen doomed family businesses reviving because of the efforts of a single individual, the spirit of a family refusing to be snuffed out after the death of the sole bread winner, a person living life of dignity and independence despite losing his limbs. All because they believed in themselves and steered the wheel of life towards survival, security and well-earned luxury. Every obstacle can turn into an opportunity. Trials in life can be tragedies or triumphs, depending on how we handle them. And no triumph comes without effort.