The Power of Work Ethic

Major ideas covered:

• Waking up with a purpose
• Having the ability to sacrifice at any moment
• Developing a vision
• Never be the smartest person in the room

We are often told that we can be anything we want to be if we work at it - for many of us it is difficult to actually get the ball rolling on starting an ambitious project or making a major life change. This is absolutely rooted in ones work ethic and is really the "make or break" on the success of that thing you're trying to accomplish. Over the past few years I always felt that I was struggling to get tasks done or meet my deadlines in a timely manner - this was large in part due to how to solve the hardest part of whatever I was working on. I have found the best way to tackle those issues is to find a way to love them. For example, I was taking a pretty difficult class last semester in vibrational mechanics and most of the time it was tough to get excited about how resonance of an object will ultimately lead to it breaking. I completely switched the way I viewed the problems: being a massive Iron Man fan, I imagined that I was part of an engineering team that was set out to work on designing part of Tony Stark's suit. It definitely helped me to not only get more excited about what I was learning, but homework became more of a game rather than a chore. With that being said, here are a few important tips I have found along my own journey to work both effectively and efficiently on large goals.

Waking Up With a Purpose

While loving the toughest part of the problem you are working on is very essential to improving your work ethic to reach your goal it is just one component of what I have found helpful in working through problems. When getting up in the morning, it really sets the tone for what you will achieve for the day and how you will get started. You should always wake up in the morning with a purpose - it is crucial. It is almost too easy to hit the alarm button and go right back to bed when there is nothing really driving you to achieve your goals. I try to make a list of things I am looking to get done for the next day the night before and have it on my desk waiting for me when I wake up. Being organized and mono-tasking is very beneficial when working on goals in high volume. There is a certain feeling of accomplishment when you can cross your to-do's off that list (it's a great feeling!).

Having the Ability to Sacrifice at Anytime

Being a college student, it is tough at times to give things up when you see your friends hanging out or relaxing when you seem to be at your busiest points. The only way to "go up" is to "give up." Everything we do costs us time, this (in my own personal opinion) is the most valuable commodity in the world. This time last year I got the incredible opportunity to give a TEDx Talk at my college and it took a lot out of me in order to put the hours in to have something I was proud of. Many weekends I was in the library until 3am writing my speech practicing over and over to get that one part just right. This caused me to give up a lot, but it was one of the greatest experiences of my life and would not have traded it for the world. People may not see all that you put in directly but if you sacrifice more than the average person you can bet that you can achieve your goals within your ideal time frame.

Developing a Vision

When you were a kid, what was it that you wanted to be? Do you remember how confident you felt when you were thinking about being that astronaut or race car driver? That feeling is something that I carry with me to this very day, because developing a vision requires an imagination to not only dream about the end goal but how you will get there. Ever since I was a kid, I have always wanted to build cars, all of my old notebooks were filled with drawings of headlights and streamlines of sports cars that one would find on the cover of a magazine. As I got older, I found that I really struggled with math and science which proved to be a massive hurdle to overcome when aiming to someday become a mechanical engineer. I made a promise to myself that no matter what happens, no matter what I face, or what I go through, I would never quit - never. That vision was my guide in some of the roughest and turbulent of times - it reminded me of why I was doing what I was doing. While it was very hard, I am happy to say that I am starting at Tesla in a few months as a manufacturing intern. Do not let people take away your vision, it is as crucial as your DNA in terms of what sets you apart from the crowd.

Never Be the Smartest Person in the Room

If you are trying to play basketball in the NBA, would you want to be playing on an average team to prepare you? Of course not! You want to play with the teams that are the best of the best in order to make you a better player so you are ready for the big leagues. The same applies when you are looking to get large ambitious tasks done, you want to surround yourself with people that have a much greater knowledge base in that particular area in order to really absorb the valuable advice they have to give. Being around productive and goal oriented people will help to really build drive and excitement for getting things done. You are a product of your environment and pushing yourself as well as having others push you will prove to be a great help when working through the hardest of problems.

Improving your work ethic is always difficult, but through passion and consistency it is very much achievable. As the late Steve Jobs once said "The only way to do great work, is to love what you do."