The Hard Thing

Doing the “hard thing” is a topic few like, but it pays off. In modern America, social media teaches that the “easy thing” is a sliding board to prosperity, Internet dreams, wealth, and a sigh. It is a lie.

In a dozen ways, my life taught me that the “hard choice” is the right choice, ten times in ten. Go to work at age 12? Do, earn, you will learn. For me, plumbing, carpentry, and what dawn brings.

Go to College? If a good opportunity to work appeared, maybe I would have taken it, but college was a different kind of work, building character, intensity, tenacity, a test. I leaned in, did my best.

Then came bigger work, longer hours, exhaustion at night, less time to smell the flowers, but it paid off, with a house, business, family, and then came the Navy, which I confess taught me “say yes.”

Stepping up, always taking on new responsibility, doing what others will not because you ought – that is the mantra that makes for success, lets you sleep easy at night, no fear, no fright.

George Washington wrote: “The harder the conflict, the greater the triumph,” and Henry V is credited with the quote: “The fewer the men, the greater the share of honor.” Put differently, Winston Churchill – who saved the world – wrote: “Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.”

We live, oddly and disturbingly, in a time when hard work, sacrifice for others, for the future, and even for ourselves, is looked down upon, when the “hard thing,” steeper trail, is seen as a curse. It is not; it is a blessing, a gift, a chance to test yourself, to fortify, harden, and make real your convictions.

Daily now, I find myself in schools, among younger people, offering counsel and guidance, hope and inspiration, in a time of fear, doubt, and disorientation. The one piece of advice, honestly and from life experience, I can offer – to young and old, in seasons hot and cold – is about growth.

Growth is not happenstance or good luck. It is not inherited or won by lottery, not acquired by hoping on some Internet influencer’s scheme or head of steam, somehow beating the system.

No. Growth reflects character and conviction, willingness to lean in, give the next big test your all, ask “what is next for me?” As C.S. Lewis wrote: “Hardship prepares ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”  We must seek, want, not hesitate, but celebrate the longing to reach higher.

Here is the truth. Growth never comes from the easy thing, a free lunch, a giveaway, or a handout. It is never the product of looking away, saying no, or trading the workhorse for show. Character is built by effort. It is never given, always earned. 

As Goethe wrote, “Everything is hard before it is easy.” So what is the lesson, the way to success for sure, how to open destiny’s door, wear life’s golden ring? It is simple: Always do the hard thing.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!