Gift of Work

The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price. ~Vince Lombardi


One of the greatest gifts my parents bestowed upon me, I have tried diligently to pass on to my children. It's a gift that costs nothing yet pays huge dividends when properly invested. The gift is a work ethic, an ability to work hard to achieve. It is not a gift that is readily accepted by children as they prefer to have things handed to them and, if it's handed to them on a silver platter, they are all the happier. Hard work is a gift they accept grudgingly, frequently complain about, and will not appreciate until they are much older.

Working hard helps to develop an attitude of perseverance, an attitude required to achieve in life be it raising a family or achieving success in the work place. Perseverance what helps us push through obstacles, helps us to succeed in the face of daunting odds. Achieving in the face of daunting odds grows character. These are all key factors to living an outstanding and successful life. I believe my generation has achieved what it has because our parents gave us the gift of a work ethic.

The formula our parents used was fairly straight forward. Do your chores or don't go out and play. Work for the money to buy things or go without. When we played sports, our parent's told us to practice hard to earn playing time. Essentially, it was do the work and enjoy the rewards or don't work and suffer the consequences. Our parents had the understanding that work and consequences went hand in hand and made sure we understood the correlation by letting us suffer the consequences as they came along.

As a kid, I did not want to work hard. I wanted to play but, first, I had to do my chores. As much as I disliked being given a work ethic growing up, I am very glad my parents loved me enough to instill this into me. Hard work is the ingredient that has gotten me where I am today. Hard work pulled me through college, is helping me succeed in business, and will propel me to bigger and better things.

In my mind, giving our children the gift of work is a basic tenet of being a parent. To not pass this gift on to our children is unconscionable, it is not preparing them for life, it is not setting them up for success. We all want our children to be successful so it is important that we pass on to them the gift of work.