By Gao Yuan

Ms. Lu had worked as a sales lady for 24 months in a sales office of China Vanke Co.,Ltd,where she won the sales competition for 7 consecutive months. In 2016,Ms. Lu went to the United States and opened a real estate agency in a remote suburb of Los Angeles. Located in a quiet area,with a small flow of residents,and even fewer Chinese people,Ms. Lu’s agency won over many patrons from competitors in four months,which surprised everyone.

As a woman younger than 30,how did Ms. Lu have so much success?

She says the reason is very simple—she worked harder than others. “I have gotten up at 5 o’clock in the morning,every day since age 17. Unless I am sick,this habit never changes. When I was working as a saleswoman in Vanke,other people would make 50 calls a day,but I made 150; other people might meet 20 customers a day,but I met 60; other people might ask for leave when they had a sore throat,I just took some pills and kept on working. I guess it’s a habit formed in my childhood,I tend to feel crisis in idleness,and have to keep myself busy and work hard. I always keep in mind that there are people out there working harder than me,so if I slack,I will be left further behind.”

With a spirit of working harder than others,she has won sales competitions in China,as well as in Los Angeles.

She went on to tell us a story: “In August of 2016,a student wrote me a letter telling me about how desperate he felt about his poor academic performance. And I wrote him a reply as follows:

Try to take 9 lessons per day and 2 self-study lessons per night; try to do at least 3 sets of test papers and use up 2 pen refills a day; try to get up 10 minutes earlier in the morning and go to bed 10 minutes later at night,spend this time memorizing a few extra words and idioms,or working out a few extra math problems instead of spending time playing on your mobile phone,or finish one English reading comprehension assignment instead of reading entertainment magazines; try to spend all the time you otherwise spend on Karaoke,movies,parties,and games on learning; try to make good use of every second in your life,which is within your right and nobody can take it away from you.

The most frustrating thing you’ll ever find is that people who you think are better than you actually just work harder than you.

You might complain that it is difficult to get out of bed at 6 o’clock,hard to memorize words,tough to maintain regular morning jogging,and impossible to keep a calm and cool mind... but haven’t you realized it yet? There are always people around you who can get up at 5 o’clock,memorize 60 words a day,read 5 pages of book and finish all their homework. It’s not because they have super powers,all they have is hard work and persistence.

No one has super powers,not Mark Elliot Zuckerberg,not Jack Ma,not Usain Bolt,nor any other great and successful person. All we can hold onto is the things we do,the way we make use of our time and energy,and the efforts and endeavors we put in to make changes in our life.

(FromSay No to Low-quality Hard Work,Jiangsu People’s Publishing House. Translation: Lu Qiongyao)