A foreigner visited an African country to attend a trade fair, during the event he walked round the different products that was displayed making comments about each of them. He got to a stand where a man is selling mortar and pestle, he told the man that he is an hardworking man. Next to the mortar and pestle stand is a woman who sells earthen pots, the man told her she's a smart business person.
A young boy who was present at the scene when the man was making those comments was curious to know why one person was told that he is hardworking and the other one is smart. The man smiled, told the boy to sit so that he can explain what he meant to him. The man told the young boy that the person selling mortar and pestle is hardworking because a lot of strength and energy will be put into carving the mortar and pestle from a tree. Not only that, a mortar and pestle can use several years before a person replace it or deem it fit to buy another one because it's old. In other words, the mortar market will not move as much as the earthen pots.
Earthen pots were used as a coolant in those days in Africa in most households. There are still some people in some villages that still use them till date. It is a fragile pot that can break easily and its life span will not be as long as that of a mortar and pestle and its does not require as much energy to produce as mortar. That is to say, a earthen pot seller will make more sales than a mortar seller on an average. This is the brief illustration that was used to expanciate on the hardworking and smart business.
As an individual, are you hardworking or smart in all you do? It is important to look at your environment and provide a service that you are quite sure will be in heavy demand. Doing a business is not always about being hard working but being smart as well. Smart decisions will make all you do as easy as ABC. There are certain steps and thoughtful decisions that should be taken before you venture into any thing in life especially a career or line of business. You must ensure that you engage yourself in a career or business that there will be a balance between smartness and hard-work.
If smart decisions are not made, you may notice that you have been doing a particular business or job for five years, ten years and you are not making progress. It is a smart minded person that will know that something you have done for up to five years without nothing to show for it is not the right choice. Working hard day in day out is not sufficient to achieving success, hence smartness must be involved to achieve greatness.
Photo by Designer491 from Istockphoto
A smart minded person is that person that knows that double streams of income is important to maintaining a good life. That is why me and you are on a great platform like this to ensure that we use our creative minds to make more money to add up to our earnings from other jobs. A hardworking person who isn't smart enough to take up other jobs with their main jobs may be complaining of lack of funds when you're smiling to the bank with the little that you get from your side hustle.
