The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture
43
The Friday Night Solution
I GOT TENURE a year earlier than people usually do. That seemed to
impress other junior faculty members.
“Wow, you got tenure early,” they’d say to me. “What was your
secret?”
I said, “It’s pretty simple. Call me any Friday night in my office
at ten o’clock and I’ll tell you.” (Of course, this was before I had a
family.)
A lot of people want a shortcut. I find the best shortcut is the
long way, which is basically two words: work hard.
As I see it, if you work more hours than somebody else, during
those hours you learn more about your craft. That can make you more
efficient, more able, even happier. Hard work is like compounded
interest in the bank. The rewards build faster.
The same is true in your life outside of your job. All my adult
life I’ve felt drawn to ask long-married couples how they were able to
stay together. All of them said the same thing: “We worked hard at
it.”
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