When we're young, we're told a beneficent fable, what Plato might have called a noble lie.

We're told that if we show up, we work hard, we apply ourselves, and we don't give up, then we will be rewarded.

And these rewards will obtain not just in the intangible sense with the satisfaction of work itself and the pride of working well, but in the material sense.

Our culture tells us that if we work hard, we will also enjoy

the material rewards of our labor. We'll be successful, even wildly successful.

The world, this beneficent fable tells us, rewards the work ethic.

It is a beneficent fable, for as the old truism goes, and I

paraphrase, talent is word diddly squat without work. Opportunity means nothing if you

don't seize it and throttle it and grapple with it. Good intentions, they mean nothing without the labor to realize

them. But a fable it remains nonetheless. Of course, many of us have enjoyed the fruits of our

labors and seen our work produce at least some of the rewards we'd hope for. But many have not.

Dreams don't always come true, even when we put in the hard work.

Hard work is a necessary condition for the realization of our goals, but not always a sufficient

one.

By the time we've reached a certain age, we've come to learn that the world doesn't always

work along the pleasant lines of the noble lie we tell our children.

We're passed over for a well-deserved promotion.

A new market trend shatters our plans to grow our business.

Years of laborious research leads to a dead end.

You work hard, but you never quite get into law school.

Or if you do, you never quite make it to your dream of an appointment to the federal bench.

You work hard, but you never quite make it as a musician or as an actor or a novelist or a salesman.

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