What does it mean to "work hard"?

Managers usually feel glad when we hear someone cheerfully and actively say "I'll work hard." But sometimes it makes me wonder― "What does it mean to work hard?"

Even if you make up your mind to work hard, it is always difficult to keep it up. Then, even if you successfully continue to make effort over a longer period of time, like say, one year, in most cases, you end up giving up often discouraged by having made so little progress. You may say to yourself "I'm disappointed. Working hard doesn't make any difference."

Mr. A, our staff member from India shared a quoted the other day in his daily report. (He always shares quotes with us in his daily report.) : "Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years." I found the quote quite convincing. It made me think what it means to "work hard".

It seems that working hard is about keeping the will in your heart and taking action having it in mind all along. Certainly, you can "work hard" momentarily by putting everything together by force, but there's another way of doing it; you can work hard deep down in your heart. In that case, it's hard to see your effort from the outside. But you can work hard over a span of 10 years. You don't have to overstrain yourself to get the results right away. The important thing is to carefully maintain and control your willl by managing your physical health at the same time. That way, a great success will be achieved eventually in time.

By the way, the quote is from Bill Gates, as you may know, the founder of Microsoft.