Attended a meeting recently that had an important message that should get to Gen Z (and everyone in the hustle of life, frankly). The message was from a very successful business leader, huge CEO, and he talked about how when he was young, he had the wrong idea. His idea was that you work hard now so you can play later. That is, you do hard so you can get to easy. I see a lot of people in Gen Z particularly who seem to think that way about the older generations. The older generations had the opportunity to work hard and now they get to have easy, but Gen Z is willing to work hard but cheated of the opportunity it is supposed to provide: to get to easy (ideally by their mid 30s or 40s or, at the very latest, 50s). So this guy's message was that his mentality was always wrong in thinking that. He said that the point isn't to work hard now so you can get to easy later. That's not it at all. You work hard now so you can get to harder. And then you work even harder at harder so you can eventually get to hardest. This is what the real ladder to success looks like. Of course, not everyone climbs it, but it always looks like this. It's like a hill that gets steeper and steeper until it's actually a concave overhang, and only the most dedicated figure out how to get through hard then harder, then to the top at hardest. Certain things do get easier, though, as a result of this climb from hard to harder to hardest. Namely, everything else, but it isn't because of the success you're generating. It's because of the capability you develop in taking on hard, harder, and eventually hardest. I've trained a very difficult martial art for a long time now, and one of the things my teacher has always says is that we train hard (meaning difficult, not just demanding) so that when we fight it will be easy. He adds things like that we do this or that particular very difficult exercise like we do because if you can do this hard thing, everything else in your life becomes easier. That's the resolution to the paradox of hard to harder to hardest producing the good (easier) life. It's that by raising your challenge level and things never actually getting easier in that sense, you grow your competence and expertise (and capacity to "eat bitter") so that everything else is easier by comparison and because you're so damned competent. Think of the old Marine or whatever who grew up on a farm and knows how to just take care of stuff or fix stuff. The American kulak, if you will. Doesn't have to be a CEO. He's done hard things, so he has the competence and baseline problem-solving know-how to deal with whatever comes his way, and that (usually) produces a good (easier) life. We venerate such figures in America for a reason, both him and the successful CEO, and regardless of financial success or standing. The fact is that things being hard or harder is a disadvantage that turns into advantage. You get better by dealing with harder things, period, or you wash out against them and lose. Most of the blackpilled in Gen Z and beyond know the saying: "...hard times create strong men." Yeah, well, only the ones willing to rise to the challenge and grow through it. Only the ones who eat bitter. Only the ones who understand that the point of hard isn't to get to easy; it's to get to harder and eventually to hardest. Enough with all the victimhood and whining and entitlement and complaining. We need to approach and enter 2026 ready to do real work. To start at the beginning. To do hard with the aim of it taking us to harder. To take our five talents and double them to ten so we can double that to twenty. It's something to think about. Which attitude are you going to take, and what are you going to figure out and do with it?