It's Supposed to be Hard!

It’s Supposed to Be Hard:

Everything worth pursuing comes with a little pain. The trick is not minding that it hurts. This is one of the most useful life skills – enduring the pain when necessary rather than assuming there’s a hack, or a shortcut, around it.

A simple rule that’s obvious but easy to ignore is that nothing worth pursuing is free. How could it be otherwise? Everything has a price, and the price is usually proportionate to the potential rewards. Most things worth pursuing charge their fee in the form of stress, uncertainty, dealing with quirky people, bureaucracy, other people’s conflicting incentives, hassle, nonsense, long hours, and constant doubt. That’s the overhead cost of getting ahead. A lot of times that price is worth paying. But you have to realize that it’s a price that must be paid. There are few coupons, and sales are rare.

Every industry and career is different, but there’s universal value in accepting hassle when reality demands it. Compounding is fueled by endurance, so sitting through periods of insanity is not a defect; it’s accepting an optimal level of hassle. Another upside of this is that once you accept a certain level of inefficiency, you stop denying its existence and have a clearer view of how the world works.

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"'Whenever someone creates something with all of their heart, then that creation is given a soul.' "