I grew up in Alabama, where it was simply taught: hard work pays off. Keep your nose down, keep your head down, focus on what you’re doing, work hard — and it will pay off.

At 52 years old, I still agree with that. It pays off in your reputation. It pays off in consistency. It pays off in fulfillment, because you know you’ve given your best. Hard work develops character, competence, trustworthiness, resilience. Those things matter, and no shortcut produces them.

But somewhere along the way I realized something the lesson never covered: hard work and growth are not the same thing.

Who knows you?

When it comes to business and opportunity, it isn’t just about who you know. What matters is who knows you — who, in their own mind, wants to know who you are and what you carry.

Here’s what happens to the person who only keeps their head down: someone else with a growth mindset sees their skill, organizes it, markets it, and scales it. The worker may get a small raise. The one who recognized the value receives the multiplication. And most of the time that isn’t exploitation — it’s simply recognition of an opportunity the worker never pursued.

The hard worker created the value. The strategic thinker created the leverage. Both are real. Both are necessary. They are just not the same activity.

Completing the lesson, not abandoning it

A farmer can work sunrise to sunset and create tremendous value. Someone else may spend a few hours building the system that lets a thousand farmers sell their harvest. The farmer worked harder; the builder created more leverage. Neither is wrong. But if you want growth — not just a good reputation — you need more than the engine. You need to know what the engine is worth.

If you want to grow, you have to take chances. You have to figure out your own self-worth, make it marketable, and become the one who receives the tenfold increase on your own labor. That’s not abandoning the lesson I grew up with. It’s completing it.

Hard work is the engine. Self-awareness identifies what’s worth multiplying. Relationships create the opportunities. Leverage multiplies the impact.

My encouragement this week: don’t take my framing or anyone else’s as gospel — sit down and think it through for yourself. What is your work actually worth? Who knows you? And what would it look like to stop waiting to be discovered, and take one deliberate chance on the value you already carry?

— Reggie