Working smart is essential, but it’s only half of the equation. [You know me, I am a mathematician and logical problem solver at heart!] No company managing director will tell you that working smart is a substitute for applying maximum effort during every waking hour of the day. To reach the top of your profession, you need to take advantage of technology and work efficiently. But more than anything, you will need to be the first one in the office and the last one still plugging away. Working smarter gives us more time, but that saved time doesn’t mean anything unless we put it to good use.
I get more work done outside normal office hours than during them and this I am sure would be true of many successful managing directors. I have interviewed on weekends, met clients online in the middle of the night (due to time zone differences) and worked into the wee small hours to complete projects.
According to an article by Michael Moroney on Entrepeneur.com, “The most successful people work smart but they also work exceptionally hard. They maintain the same level of persistence and drive while learning ways to do things more efficiently. We don’t all have to aspire to be CEOs, but for those of us that do, finding more effective ways to do things is only half the battle.” And he’s so right….
As a budding young business owner, I am acutely aware that we work in a different way to the ‘competition’ here at FWL. We work hard, we work smart and we change our working practices to improve on a daily basis. [I hate to use a cliché but we ‘think outside the box‘.] Couple this with ingenuity, vision, sensitivity, professionalism …. I could go on …. and we stand out from the crowd. That’s not to say that some days I wonder how long I can actually afford to sleep….! The list is endless. Will there ever be enough hours in a day/week/month to get it all done? [Time for a power nap I think.]
