We have often heard that “work smart and not hard”. Does only smart work bring you success? And if so, then why are so many of us still busy putting our blood and sweat into working hard? Here, we’ll discuss hard work and smart work.

Hard work sticks to the traditional form of doing work. It is all about consistently working towards a particular goal irrespective (不考虑的) of its worth, not being worried about the result and not using any means to reduce your effort. Hard work requires a lot of commitment and sincerity from the person. Although being boring and tiresome, it can give you the best results if it is done with heart and soul.

One of the preconditions of smart work is having an in-depth knowledge or experience of the work in hand, because that allows you to look for efficient ways to do the work in a planned and organized manner. Being a smart worker saves a lot of time as you can find means to reduce your work by using logical and innovative ways to achieve your goals. Besides, it also gives you enough time to learn a new task while completing the present one.

Although it seems that smart work is a better option, what we forget is that smart work is the fruit of hard work. Only when you work hard you gather the expertise (专业技能) and the knowledge to understand the work in hand and efficiently improve on it and work smartly.

So which do you think should be preferred? We are sure you have heard of “United we stand, divided we fall.”, and that is true in this case too. You will attain great heights and lead a better and comfortable life if you combine both smart and hard work together. If you are not smart your hard work will never pay. A donkey only does hard work, while a horse does hard work and uses its smartness whenever and wherever it needs. In a similar way, smart work is the result of hard work. To master the quality of smart work, you really need to work hard. Through hard work, we gain experience which helps us discover new things that in turn enables us to work smartly. The effort is important, but where to make that effort makes a difference.

One day when I was 5, my mother scolded me for not finishing my rice and I got angry. I wanted to play outside and not to be made to finish eating my old rice. In my angry motion to open the screen door with my foot, I had kicked back about a 12-inch part of the lower left hand corner of the new screen door. But I had no remorse, for I was happy to be playing in the backyard with my toys.

Today, I know if my child had done what I did, I would have scolded my child, and told him about how expensive this new screen door was, and I would have delivered a spanking (打屁股) for such behavior. They never said a word. They left the corner of the screen door pushed out, creating an opening, a breach (裂缝) in the defense against unwanted insects.

For years, every time I saw that corner of the screen, it would constantly remind me of my mistake. For years, I knew that everyone in my family would see that hole and remember who did it. For years, every time I saw a fly buzzing in the kitchen, I would wonder if it came in through the hole that I had created with my angry foot. I would wonder if my family members were thinking the same thing, silently blaming me every time a flying insect entered our home, making life more terrible for us all.

My parents taught me a valuable lesson, one that a spanking or stern (严厉的) words perhaps could not deliver. Their silent punishment for what I had done delivered a hundred stern messages to me. Above all, it has helped me become a more patient person and not burst out so easily.

One day,I was taking a nap in my office when I woke up to the sound of a car crash.I sat up and looked out of the window.In the parking lot,a car had just crashed into a fence.The car must have been moving fast,because it was in bad shape.

Then I watched as the driver got out of the car.He wore loose trousers and a crumpled(褶皱的）shirt unbuttoned to show his chest hair.Immediately,I disliked him.

Then,he opened the passenger door,from which a very small child ran out.A kid in the front seat!My dislike for the man increased greatly.

As the child ran around in the parking lot,the man tried to repair the damage.He tried to pull the ruined fence back into place,but it wouldn't move.I looked out of the window,silently cheering.The man tried harder.However,suddenly,the man fell hard onto the ground with one of his shoes landing 10 feet away on the sidewalk.I think I laughed out loudly.That almost brightened my whole morning.He stood up and walked slowly to a nearby apartment.That,I thought,would be the end of it.The man was going to leave the mess behind for someone else to clean up.

However,a few minutes later the man appeared with some tools and for the next hour, I watched out of my window as he stubbornly fixed the fence.Now the fence would be extra secure,stronger than before.That man was actually a hero.My ugly assumptions(设想），I realized,were all about myself.I would never have fixed that fence and run away.

Years later I still look out of my window at the fence almost every day.It makes me wonder what else that man has improved and how I can make myself more like him.