On the topic of working hard, a contractor once told me that he is held by the parent company to work harder and increase profits.
However, when he increases his profits, the parent company will siphon off the additional profits so his own profits stay the same as they always were and in addition they will raise their expectations to the new, higher level and repirmand him if he does not meet the new expectations. It basically paid off for him to be just mediocre because then he has to work less and still gets the same profit that he would get if he tried to please his superiors. The parent company was a multi-national corporation that everybody here knows btw.
Another person told me a similar story. Basically he worked hard and his boss was fine with it and paid him every month until he found out that the person was not an apprentice but unskilled labor but was paid apprentice wages. Suddenly the boss raged about how the person had been paid too much all these months even though there never was a problem with the work that was done and the apprentice-level wage had never been questioned before...
So the real way to get rich is to create artificial barriers that keep the money on your side and away from others. To say that hard work pays off is complete lunacy unless your job offers a decent system of promotions where you actually have a chance to move up through hard work instead of slick talk or crawling into someone's behind.
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