Happy New Year to all readers! This wasn’t what I had planned for the first blog of 2022, but sometimes events overtake you (I had something cool lined up about the new series of The Apprentice as well, but I’m sure that can wait for a couple of weeks).
Many of you will have heard the fuss over the comments made by influencer Molly-Mae Hague, suggesting that success comes purely as a result of hard work:
“I understand that we all have different backgrounds and we’re all raised in different ways and we do have different financial situations, but I do think if you want something enough, you can achieve it.
“It just depends to what lengths you want to go to get where you want to be in the future.
“And I’ll go to any lengths. I’ve worked my absolute a*** off to get where I am now.”
(Video clip posted below)
Before we go any further, it seems as though the backlash against these comments has ended up in the (sadly normal) personal abuse – this is not what this blog is about, and Steven Bartlett (host of the podcast on which Molly-Mae made her comments) has rightly condemned both the abuse and the embedded misogyny within.
My focus is more on the suggestion that hard work brings rewards, and I have three rebuttals to this:
- How do you define success anyway? Molly-Mae achieved fame from being on a reality TV show, and is now an influencer who reportedly earns £500,000 per year as Creative Director of the fashion brand Pretty Little Thing. Is success down to what you do, how much you earn, who you work with? There is no single right answer to this question.
- There are (literally) millions of people who work hard in roles which will not bring any tangible reward, whether that be a pay rise, a promotion, or status. A few examples that I can think of include care workers, cleaners, and the armies of volunteers delivering vaccinations and running food banks, amongst other things.
- “Work harder” is meaningless advice anyway. In my experience, there are very few people who will positively respond to, or benefit from, the advice of “you need to work harder”. It isn’t advice in itself without a context; for example, you might tell a footballer that they should practice their free kicks, or an artist that they could upskill on using social media – but if you just said “you can make it if you work harder”, it would not add any value.
Of course, if you are trying to make sense of your career and would like some constructive feedback, advice and guidance, then I am here to help! Just get in touch and we can have an initial chat which won’t cost you a penny.
Otherwise I would be really interested in your views on the Molly-Mae debate – do get in touch via Twitter or Instagram (and why not give us a follow while you’re there?).
[Cover photo by Pixabay on Pexels]
Karuna CV 