Smart is NOT Enough

Smart is not enough. I found this as one of the biggest learning in my personal and professional life. I used to over-glorify “smartness” and think it as all that I need to be successful and winning in life and at work. I usually take pride for being the smartest guy in the room. I grad high school with perfect score in Math (Nilai 10 di Ujian Nasional), IQ Tests consistently put me in Genius category, I majored in Physics in Uni, did thesis?in Artificial Intelligence field before it was “cool”, then pursue Computational Mathematics, and later work in complex world of Software Engineering. But then I began to failed to deliver what I needed to deliver, I began to produce results that did not make the cut. I began to see the “less smart” people performed better than me. I also began to be in the room where I am not the smartest guy anymore. So, I concluded, there must be something else.

Smart is a Level Playing Field.

We often hear the saying “Work Smart, NOT Work Hard!”. I totally agree with this statement. If we “Work Smart” we will be very efficient. However, if “smart” is a level playing field, then we need to look at the other part, the “Work Hard” part, a part that many “smart” people are not willing to do.

In today’s world, everyone is smart. We will no longer always be the smartest guy in the room. Everyone has access to information and knowledge. Those are commodity. There are many geniuses out there. So, if everyone now is smart, then the only way to make the difference, to be singled out from the crowd, and to win the competition, is to Work Harder than everyone else. The good thing is, not many has come to this realization, or if they have, they are simply too lazy to put in the work.?

So, it is an opportunity. Win the competition by being smart, and work the hardest. Just put in the work, and outwork everybody. I am now comfortable not to be the smartest guy in the room. It is even most of the case now. :) But I will feel down if I don’t deliver simply because I did not put in enough work.?

Don’t rely on Motivations. They wear out.

Now we have figured it out. We are smart, and we put in the work the hardest. We are winning. But then some days we just don’t feel like it. We feel we are not “motivated” anymore. Then we read motivational books and articles, watch TED Talks, get motivational quotes, etc. Those charged us up for a week or two, and then we lost the motivations again. And so on.

This is another learning I figured out. Motivations wear out. As simple as that. So, the best strategy is not to rely on motivations. We need to rely on other thing. Ourselves. More precisely, Self Discipline. Motivations may get us to start, but to get us going, we rely on Discipline.?

So, set our goal or purpose. Define the plan to achieve it. Then execute. Be Discipline. Just do the work because you have to do the work. Know that if you don’t do the work, you are not moving closer towards your goal or purpose. Drive ourselves. We are the one in charge and in control of ourselves.

So, in anything; personal life or at work. Achieving your fitness goal, work goals, study goals, company goals, any goals. Don’t rely on motivations, rely on discipline.

Mental Composure. Mental Toughness.

Okay. We are smart. We work hard. We are discipline. But then the storm is coming. In life and at work there are hardships. Hard difficult things that hit us like a storm. It just crushes us. To deal with this situation, what we need to do is to embrace it, and to accept that there are things that are within our control, and things that are outside of our control. We cannot calm down the storm. It is out of our control. But we can calm ourselves down in the storm. That is in our control.?

We need to realize that we are responsible for our feelings, thoughts, words, and actions. We need to take ownership of our life. We are in control of those. We are in control on how to act, react and respond.

In some situations, we may rise to the occasion. But in hardship and tough situations, chances are we fall to our lowest weakest point. A point where we no longer can control our feelings, though, words, and actions. So, the best strategy is increasing our lowest weakest point. Even if we fall, we will not fall too low. How? By training and drilling. We need to expose ourselves to controlled hardship, dive in to the pain cave, embrace the suck, and train to stay composed in those situations.?

We can train this in day to day situation in personal life and at work. In my case, I also do CrossFit (where things like 1 mile run + 100 pull ups + 200 push ups + 300 squats + another 1 mile run, while wearing a 10kg vest, all to be done under 1 hour, is just another day in the gym). It is a sport that is not just physical, but really is mental. Really test you whether to quit when you are done, or quit when you are tired.

The more we train to stay composed in tough situations, the more familiar ourselves to be in control of our feelings, thoughts, words and actions. The more we can calm ourselves down in the storm. Even to a level that we will be charging in head first INTO THE STORM.

Attack The Day with Enthusiasm.

So, those are some of the best lessons I have learned that I can share that I hope can be useful for us all. I hope we all come to the realization that Smart is NOT enough, hence:

We need to put in the work. Hard work.

We need to rely on Discipline. Not motivations.

Stay composed. Embrace The Suck.

Starting tomorrow, wake up early in the morning, hit cold shower, ATTACK THE DAY WITH ENTHUSIASM. In the evening, ask ourselves whether we will proudly sign our name on all the things we did that day. Then go to sleep fulfilled.