If I hear one more success story spout the advice – “work smart, not hard” to a
wanna-be entrepreneur I might scream. To everyone out there reading this: if you
want to start your own business, in my opinion this is the WORST advice you can
take.

Starting a small business in Australia, the odds are against you. If you start out with
the plan to “work smart, not hard” I believe those odds will skyrocket in a not so
positive direction.

When you start your own business it will be fuelled by your passion, your sweat, your
desire, your hard work. Am I saying “don’t work smart”? Of course not! I’m speaking
from experience and saying that if you think you can ONLY work smart at the
beginning I think you’ll be in for a rude shock.

To me the path to success for a new entrepreneur goes like this:

Start: Work hard, hard, hard

Next: Keep working hard, hard, hard and once you have somewhat of a clue, start to
incorporate the “smart”

Later: This is when you can look to eliminate as much of the hard as you can by being
the smartest cookie in the packet – but it doesn’t come immediately.

Please don’t start a business unless you’re prepared for the “hard” – but always be on
the lookout to incorporate the “smart” as you go along.

Reproduced with permission from the Kirsty Dunphey blog and weekly
newsletter: www.kirstydunphey.com