You’ve seen the saying on the back of T-shirts at sporting events. It’s probably on a poster in your locker room. Heck, you may have even retweeted a fancy graphic of the quote:

“Hard work will beat talent, if talent doesn’t work hard.”

You wear it, you display it, you like it, because you desperately want to believe that your hard work will be rewarded. That your hard work will even the playing field. That your hard work will make you win.

But here’s the honest truth, Talent Beats Hard Work.

The girl that gives attitude. The girl that shows up late to practice. The girl with a hundred excuses. The girl that makes weekend, and friend, and boyfriend choices that are seriously no good. And yet, she has the starting spot, she’s getting recruited, she’s beating you. An unfortunately common experience of talent beating hard work.

Somewhere along the line, the idea of hard work became our safety net. Hard work became the justification for the outcomes we athletes feel we deserve.

But guess what, the scoreboard is not a scale. It doesn’t measure who worked hard, harder, hardest. The scoreboard just highlights who won the game.

Let me make it clear, I am not anti-hard work. Quite the opposite. My athletic career was 90% hard work and 10% talent. Rather, I argue, we can no longer allow the idea of “hard work” to be our cop-out. Allow it to dismiss someone’s accomplishments by some arbitrary standard. Or mainly, to allow our outcomes to sway our feelings of ourselves and others.

If you really want Hard Work to manifest in your life, these are the principles of hard work you need to accept;

1. Hard work is relative. As my college professor said, “Even C students work hard.” Hard work is not a quantitative measurement. Even if it doesn’t always look like it, everyone works hard. At least in their own mind, they work hard. Hard work looks different, feels different, and is valued differently by everyone.
2. Hard work’s payoff is not always immediate. There is no rule that says, “If you work really hard, by the end of the season, you will be the State Champion.” You can work really, really hard and get second place. You can work really hard and only get a couple minutes of playing time. One season of hard work does not equate to a perfect ending. You have to be committed to working hard continuously… in season and out of season, freshman year through senior year, healthy or injured. Hard work will pay off, eventually. You just can’t give it a deadline.
3. Hard work is a mindset. It’s also an attitude and a choice. Everyone can work hard when it’s easy. But are you willing to work hard through adversity? Through failures and frustrations? Through the defeats and disappointments? Are you willing to work hard when things don’t feel fair? Hard work is not tangible. You cannot buy it from a store. You cannot just pick it up when you need some. Hard work is a lifestyle, not a means to an end.

Please, stay encouraged to be your best self. You cannot control outcomes. You cannot control anyone else’s behavior or choices… or even control your own talent. But you can control your attitude, your responses, and yes, your effort.

Keep working hard because it will pay off for you. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not by the end of the season. Maybe not in the exact package you expected. But if you keep working hard, you won’t win. You’ll be a winner.

Play Now, Play YOU,

XO, Coach D