49.        There is no doubt that hard work contributes to success. Yet a person can work
awfully hard and still achieve very little. In order to bring about success, hard work has
to be directed by dear goals and the knowledge of how to reach them. Moreover,
imagination, intelligence and persistence can be equally important to success.
      Individual success is gauged by the extent to which one reaches his important
personal goals. And it takes careful planning to set goals and discover the best means of
realizing them. Before hard work even begins, therefore, considerable time and effort
should be spent on planning.
      Intelligence and imagination play important roles in planning. Imagination helps
one to envision new solutions to problems, and new means by which to achieve goals.
Intelligence helps one research and critically evaluate the possibilities that imagination
has provided. Together, imagination and intelligence can even help one avoid certain
kinds of hard work, by producing more efficient ways to accomplish 'goals.
      Finally, persistence is crucial to success. Sometimes, rewards do not come
quickly—even when one carefully sets the goals, creatively and intelligently plans ways
to achieve them, and work hard according to plan. Tradition has it, for example, that
Thomas Edison made thousands of attempts to create a light bulb before he finally
succeeded. In the face of countless failures, he refused to quit. In fact, he considered
each failure a successful discovery of what not to do!
      In conclusion, it is true that there is no substitute for hard work. But hard work is
an ingredient of success, and not the key. Hard work can produce real accomplishment
only if it is directed by a plan involving some idea of one's goals and the means to them.
And a good plan, as well as its successful implementation, requires imagination,
intelligence, and persistence.