What do you do when hard work doesn’t pay off?

Last week on Twitter, a young man named Eric asked a simple question, “What do you do when hard work doesn’t pay off?” It’s a great question and genuine too. Everyone thinks about it and everyone faces it. How would you answer Eric?

My answer was this:

Today is a reminder that you get no guarantees before you start, achieve only what you deserve to earn, and will spend most of your time doing hard work without seeing pay off. The payoff is out there until you get it or you stop working for it.

Do the work.