Photo credit: Carl Heyerdahl via Unsplash

???I know this goes against every fiber of what we?re taught to believe? but it?s true: hard work is not rewarded. (Not in the way you want it)

I was raised in the immigrant-mindset of work hard, work harder and work until it?s impossible for you to do so. 

So for the longest time I believed that the harder I worked the ?more successful? I would become.  

In my mid-20s, I realized that the definition of ?success? I was living was not mine at all. I just felt like a hamster in a wheel going round and round and round, because no amount of hard work amounted to any success - not the type of success I want anyway. 

When I think of the hardest workers, I think of people that had to do more and constantly be doing. 

When I think of the happiest people, I think of people who are compensated for being more of who they are, of doing what they said they would, of just being certain of what they have to offer. 

And if you really think about it...

Disney and Starbucks have made it big because they leveraged the things that are ACTUALLY rewarded, and while it may have taken some hard work to get there, it took the form of a ladder rather than a hamster wheel. 

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