The Extra Hours You Work Makes You Great
17 Apr 2025 · 11 min
Thomas Anglero argues that working through holidays and weekends separates winners from everyone else. He uses Michael Jordan as an example of someone whose invisible hours built his legacy, and warns that social media makes people think effort should be visible immediately.
Chapters
Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero, and I'm feeling sorry for all you great people out there who have to work every time there's a holiday, every time there's a vacation, every time there's a weekend. You have to put in the grind. A lot of you are leaders of your field, your company, your group, and no one cares. No one sees the work you're doing. While they're all home or on vacation, you're grinding away. You're the one who gets yelled at. You're the one who people look at. You're the one who takes the hit. This is for you because I see you all the time. Technology is here and it's changed and it's moving at an incredibly fast rate. It's making things more difficult. We have governments around the world using the word terrorist as if they're using the word the. God, I'm sick of that word already and it's just came out. Everything has changed. The pressure is on, baby. But why is it that everyone else seems to be relaxing and having a wonderful time and you gotta work? Let me make you feel better. The work that you're putting in now, the work you're putting in that no one sees you putting in, is the work that guarantees you to stand out forevermore. See, if we— if I look at sports, simplest analogy to, or contrast to talk about, in basketball, the great Michael Jordan. Everybody talks about him, but everybody talks about his greatness. No one talks about the decades worth of work, the hours of getting up. Do you know he got up every day at 5:30 in the morning? Not just got up, but went to the gym or to the weight room at 5:30 in the morning every day, including the days of the game. Where he had a game a few hours later in the afternoon or in the evening? Do you know after every game he also stood around and took some more shots? And you have one of the coaches or his own personal coach, because he had the money for it, to stay there with him till midnight, past midnight. The work you put in that nobody sees you putting in is the work that defines your character, is the work that defines your future. It's the reason why He was called— he was considered the greatest basketball player ever because he put in work when there was no one around. He paid the coach, so I mean, that person was paid to be there. But you don't have anybody to pay you to keep you company. Matter of fact, a lot of you are single, or a lot of you could be on paper married but you're still alone. And a lot of you are married and everything's going well, you got a great family, but you— when you put in those hours during the vacation, during the weekend, 1, 2 o'clock in the morning, you're alone. But you're doing amazing things. You're feeding your family, you're feeding your career, you're feeding your opportunities, you're feeding your energy. Now, you may not want to do what you're doing some of the time, maybe all the time, but that's what makes you great. Society today, people are lazy as hell. Look at the people that work for you. Is everybody working 100%? Is everybody breaking their butt? Are people, you know, sitting at their desk chewing else because they're just absolutely out of their mind, they just cannot work any harder. I haven't seen that. I haven't seen that in years, to be in an environment where people are all stressed out because they're all working so damn hard. Except in manual labor jobs, those environments, you can either work hard or you get injured, so might as well work hard. But in an office environment, I don't see it. I see people mastering the, the number one art of taking credit for other people's work, which I freaking sick and disgusted of. I've been at the end of that thing for decades and I'm done with it. But the work you're putting in now, the hard work, the sitting at the PC for endless amounts of hours, the fact that your butt hurts all the time because you sit so much, is the beauty of who you are. The future you're going to make, the reason why you're ahead of everyone else, and you will smile tomorrow where everybody else is asking for sympathy. I love people who grind. I love people who have a visionary— vision of the future, of themselves, of where they need to be. They see the answer and they're breathing that answer. They're coupling it into their chest. Like giving mother's milk to a problem to solve it. The work you're doing is incredible. It shows how amazing you are. And the people who see your results of your work, they come back from vacation, or they come back from the weekend, or they come back from wherever they were, and you've completed the work, or you have a solution or you have the presentation done, or the drawing, or the design, or whatever it is, or the pattern if you're into retail and textiles. They know in their heart that you are amazing. They know, 'cause they didn't put any work. So put in the work and love yourself. Put in the work and say, and then do, and take some time for you. Go forth and spread beauty and light. Know that you're being seen. Know that the work that you're putting in, and the hard work that you do alone Makes you amazing. I truly, truly, truly respect you for the work you do alone. The narcissistic tendencies of people to do only things when they have the mobile phone pointed at them. How many times do you see— you ever see these videos where people are on Instagram, they're posing for a photo, and as soon as the photo is taken, there's another person is videotaping them? As soon as they finish taking that photo Their whole body drops down, the face is gone, the smile's gone. They look at the photo, oh, how good a photo was, and that's the real them. Well, you're the opposite. You're the person saying, I don't need a camera in front of me, I don't need a photo of me, I don't need a video of me, because I am always shining, I am always kicking ass, I am always grinding, I am always good. I don't need people's recommendations, I don't need anybody's confirmation on who I am and how freaking great I am. I am who I am. You are awesome. You are unstoppable. You are it. And you don't need anybody. This is when you get recognition. That's Icy on top of the cake. You don't need it because you exist at a level above them all. God bless you. Give yourself a hug. Smile to yourself. When it's dark at night, you look out the window, everybody's asleep because it's 1:30, 2:30, 3:30 in the morning. Sometimes you look out the window and the sun's coming up and you think, whoa, is me, man, you are the differentiator. I remember working late at night and the sun started coming up again and I'm still, still working and I started dancing and saying, man, I'm already starting my new day and I'm ahead of everybody else. I'm already starting my new day and I got problems solved. I'm restarting my new day and my brain is smoking. I may be physically tired, but I see clearly now. I've been grinding at this. I got solutions. I am so— that is the attitude. You are so amazing. You are so ahead of where you— everyone else was. I heard this really cool thing yesterday, was this expression, and it said that even people who just started running yesterday, and they ran or they walked one block around their street and back, and that was it. They're still miles ahead of the person sitting on the sofa. I thought that was so cool. It's all about perspective. Those who are not there with you when you are alone doing the work, they are miles behind you and they can never catch up because the epiphanies, the different thoughts you've had, the amount of hours playing the flute, the violin, the cello, dancing alone to get that, that rhythm, that step right. Grinding at that idea, writing that report, trying to find a solution for the business model, revenue model, IT integration problems, backend, frontend solutions, all these different complexities of all the different industries and jobs. And you're just, you're grinding, smoothing, rhythm, synchronization, finding it out. That is who you are. And that who none of us are. That's solely you. You are amazing. You are amazing. Keep telling yourself you are amazing. You are. The grind you put in alone is alone only for you. You solely deserve the credit. I'm Thomas Anglero. My eyes are closed because I'm so excited looking at you in my mind's eye. You're so impressive because you're putting in the work. And those who have no idea what I'm talking about, it's not too late to get your butt off the sofa and grind like everyone else who's listening to this podcast. God bless you. I love you. Until next time.
