Hard work, for the most part, is a purely subjective opinion.
As people, there are some of us who tend to think that we are better and work harder than we really do, and there are those of us who feel like we don't work hard enough even though it is perceived otherwise in the eyes of others.
Hard work is purely subjective.
You will have people who spend hours looking at a computer screen all day and say that they work hard, while there are those that work sun up to sun down working physically and mentally demanding trades in the world of blue collar.
With that being said, you have everything to gain by working a little bit harder.
It doesn't matter whether you already believe that you are the hardest worker in the room or not, there is always more to be done.
There is always room to perfect your craft, learn how to be more efficient in a particular field, or knowledge to be gained.
The cost of hard work is time, energy, and consistency of doing something over a long enough period of time to see it eventually pay off.
It doesn't matter whether you are working on yourself or perfecting your craft, you get better the harder you work and the more consistent you are in your work and your pursuits towards something greater.
Understand that there are always going to be people that envy you when they see you working harder than them.
People will envy you for being better than them and they will go out of their way to try and bring you down as a result of your efforts.
This is a natural part of life and dealing with other people.
We know that people who are envious and jealous of you will look for any reason to knit pick you out of their own insecurities.
How you handle these types of people is by having empathy for them and understand the only reason they want to see you fail is because of their own insecurities.
Do not act out on these people from a reactive and emotional frame of mind as it will just bring you down to their level.
Instead, continue to work hard in your pursuits and offer a helping hand to those in need along the way.
This is quality leadership because you decided to take the moral high ground and bring other people up with you in your pursuit of something greater.
You decided to lead by example by being the one to set the tone through your efforts and deciding to share your expertise with others.
It is also important to note that you must remain humble and be open to learning things from others as well.
People who tend to believe they are the hardest workers in the room think that they know all and they know best, which is also a frame of mind rooted in their own insecurities.
By remaining humble, you will be able to have empathy for others and open up your capacity to learn things from others.
Maybe someone who is not as skilled as you has discovered a hack in which they do things that could help you in your efforts.
On the other hand, you can also learn from others on what not to do in a particular situation.
If you want to become a leader, you have to understand that your actions and how you carry yourself professionally through your hard work is going to reflect to others that you are one they can confide in and come to you if they need help with something.
Sitting back and barking orders at others is not a quality of successful leadership.
People look up to those who lead by example and who want to see everyone in their team succeed.
There is a genuine lack of respect that people will have towards those who decide to sit back and tell everyone what to do without putting in any effort themselves - this is seen collectively as someone who wants to have control over others, not help lead them to success.
The cost of hard work is genuine sacrifice.
Sacrifice in the form of giving up your short term gratification for long term reward.
Sacrifice of the ego in serving a greater purpose.
And most importantly, sacrificing your time for the benefit of serving others.