But is that still true today? People can understand why hard work is needed at a time where people have to hunt animals and gather fruits. During those times, you cannot come back home without food. In the 21st Century, most people still think that way. But from the philosophy of a smart worker, “hard work pays off… but it doesn't pay enough.”

Jamie McIntyre drives this point in his book “What I Didn't Learn in School but Wish I Had”. He argues that the trends today do not call for hard workers. Instead, we need people who think. While millionaires do not undervalue hard work, they certainly do not find hard work as the beacon of success. Instead, working smart is just as important, if not more important, than working hard.

Then what is smart work? Smart work is thinking work. Today, people get caught up with different pressures in life that they feel they need to be in tip-top shape to handle every pressure that comes at them. However, a myopic understanding of hard work will result to making things harder instead of succeeding. In the end, a sense of constant struggle will befall the hard worker who does not find ways out of his predicament or are unaware of his current situation.

Today the world is built on finding easier ways at arriving at things. In finding financial freedom, there is always an easier way. Finding the easy way out is the initial step to smart work. As we find the path to making things more efficient and effective for ourselves, we free up time to become more productive and useful to other people. Thus, smart work becomes one of the primary tools for achieving financial freedom in this age.

A Smart Approach

Developing a millionaire's mindset involves a lot of discernment, decision making, and critical judgment. In short, being a millionaire requires a lot of thinking. Being your own CEO by improving your time management skills, efficiency, and productivity is a thinking process. Being higher up the financial pyramid requires being smarter than the next person. There is always a bigger chance for you to outsmart the next person than outwork them.

Achieving Financial Freedom the Smart Way

Jamie McIntyre explains that hard work can be detrimental and is not the key to wealth creation and financial freedom. Definitely, it is as not as valuable as working smart. There are different examples including Jamie's life that can testify that smart work pays off a lot more than hard work. By developing his mindset, he changed his fortune from a young man with too much debt to a better man with financial freedom. The changing mindset allows people to set successful financial strategies and act instinctively with the vision to create wealth.

Being Above the System

Smart work involves questioning your way out of a system created by the people who control the resources. Breaking into the group of the haves involves rising above the world system that most people fall under. Daring to be different in a responsible and positive way is a never-ending thinking process to get ahead of the pack.

Smart work is the true pursuit to happiness. Meanwhile, myopic hard work is admission of defeat. This distinction is more obvious in the 21st century than ever before. It is our choice where we want to end up.