The smarter you work, the more you earn. The big idea about smart work is that you are constantly mapping the work you do to the reward you get. People who work hard for peanuts lack this mode of thinking. They cannot draw out the money connection. When you discover the connection of money to what you do, you uncover the path of smart work.
There are 7 elements of working smart that you should know:
1. Reputation
Only smart people understand the power of working to build a reputation. Many people are working for a paycheck. And that only leads to mediocrity.
Whenever I have the chance to advise young people just starting in life, I encourage them to pick a place to work where they can build their reputation. Choose reputation over money. This is because, in the long run, reputation will supercharge the money you make. But money will not help your reputation.
Smart people work for reputation. Your brand will be built on your reputation. If you have zero reputation, you will always start at minimum wage at everything you do.
Brand (and reputation) is the new work experience
Nobody really cares how long you have been doing something. What people really care about is how notable, impactful, and famous you are at it. Think about that.
Work smart by working to build a reputation.
2. Relationships
Average people who struggle to make a lot of money place little or no value on relationships. And relationships are the keys you need to stay at the top.
I don’t invest in coaching and masterminds to learn. Yes, I learn but that is secondary. Instead, I invest primarily to build relationships. I prepare for the opportunities I want by investing in relationships that can make them come alive.
Most people are default players with their relationships. None of their friends are deliberate. All their friends are people they grew up with, went to school with, met at work or a social gathering. If you live that way, you would shortchange yourself.
Choose who you want to be friends with. And invest in that relationship. Several months ago, I wrote down that I wanted to be friends with a billionaire investor. And it happened. It was deliberate.
Choose deliberate relationships that enable you to be the person you want to be every day. They will shorten your learning curve and expose you to things beyond what you think is possible.
3. Oiling Key Relationships
This relationship thing is so big. It is one thing to choose (and build) a relationship. It is another thing to oil the relationship. You oil a relationship by communicating to the other person, what they want and love.
Send gifts. The thing about a gift is not in its size, but in the thoughtfulness that goes into it. The mistake people make with gifting is that they send what they love to another person. And they think the other person will like it because they do.
But the real secret to oiling great relationships is to investigate what the other person would really like. It is often something don’t understand how come they like it. When you have something like that, you know you have nailed it.
Oiling key relationships is a way to work smart because you put yourself at the top of the mind of the other person. And when opportunities show up, guess who would be the first person that comes to their mind?
4. Being a Plug
This is all about helping people. When you get an opportunity that is not a good fit for you, what do you do with it? Most people just get sad and move on. But smart people don’t work that way.
When you find an opportunity that doesn’t fit you, think about people in your network that might fit. And push it to them. This is such a good vibe.
They will appreciate it. They will love you for that even if it is not a good fit for them. I have a friend that sends me good opportunities now and then. Most are not a good fit, but I deeply appreciate the fact that he thinks about me every time he finds a deal worth digging into. And of course, he is one of the top people I reach out to when I have something in his sphere of expertise.
Be a plug for other people, and they will also be a plug to you. It is one of the ways to work smart. Instead of digging your head trying to apply everywhere.
5. Empower Subordinates
I have shared about this before. And it is worth noting again. You will only wear yourself out if you are the only one that can do your work well. The secret to growing and scaling is teaching other people what you know and understand.
If you don’t empower your subordinates, you won’t step into the ease of working smart. Yes, there is the problem of trust. What if I empower them and they leave? Well, what if you don’t empower them and they stay?
The way to build trust is to empower your team. Some will leave, and that is a good thing. But those who stay after they are empowered would be loyal and be trustworthy.
If you don’t want to work like a mile till you die, empower your subordinates. That’s another way to work smart.
6. Automation
Every business today has an online component. And if you carry out all your day-to-day business activities manually, you have a problem. You should automate at least 60–70% of your customer experience.
But you don’t automate without first finding out the efficient way of doing the task manually. Most people who automate make this mistake. They think automation is the efficient way. And that is not true.
You find the efficient way first manually. When you have established that, then you automate that efficient path you found. That is the way to work smart with automation.
7. Layering Success
One way to effectively shorten the distance between one success and another is to layer your successes. This also means to stack your success on top of each other.
This is the ultimate leverage in working smart. People that don’t understand the power of this go through unnecessary suffering especially when they have to start over at something. Even from an obvious failure, you can milk success.
Failure is not a badge of honor. Let no one deceive you. It is only sweet to talk about your failures after you have had a big success. But when all you have are stacks of failed projects and businesses, milk the success in it. There is something successful within every failure. Find yours. And then stack them on each other.
Only talk about those successes (isolate them from the failures) as you go along in life. When you hit your big success, then you can start talking about the failure. It is a balance that helps fly high.
When you layer your success, you work smart.
Conclusion
People call you lucky when you work smart. One way to supercharge the luck factor is to avoid talking about the effort and only talk about the result. If you make it sound easy, it will become easier for you.
Also, if you follow these 7 elements of working smart, you would keep going from one lucky moment to another as long as you stay in a positive vibe.
Cheers!
P.S. If you find this insightful, you would love my 5-day money mastery.