Why Steady Hard Work Beats Shortcuts Every Time by Mark Edgington

But here’s what no one tells you until it’s too late:

Shortcuts always come with a cost.

And the bill shows up eventually.

The Cost of Cutting Corners

When I was younger, I didn’t want to hear about discipline. I wanted results. Recognition. Relief. I wanted to feel like I mattered right now, not in some far-off future where I had to earn things.

And like a lot of young men with something to prove and something to hide, I made choices that seemed like solutions at the moment.

One of those shortcuts landed me in prison.

I’ve talked before about the crime, the sentence, and the years I spent trying to rebuild from it. But what I don’t always talk about is the mindset that got me there:This idea that if I just avoided the hard road — if I talked my way around the work, if I tried to fit in…I could still get what I wanted.

I was wrong.

And prison gave me plenty of time to sit with that.

We live in a culture that celebrates instant everything. Overnight success. Quick fixes. Ten-step life hacks. Fast results.

But I’ll be honest with you: the people I trust most are the ones who’ve done it the long way. The ones who’ve put in the hours no one counts and learned how to carry their own weight.

That’s character. That’s resilience.

And it’s built, not bought.

What I Know Now

These days, I don’t look for shortcuts.

I get up early. I do the work. I try to keep my word. I try to do what’s right when no one’s checking. Not because it gets me ahead, but because it lets me sleep at night.

So if you’re working through something hard: recovery, rebuilding, reentry, regret; don’t go looking for an escape hatch. Pick up the next brick. Lay it straight. Do it again tomorrow.

That’s how you build something that lasts.

—

Mark Edgington

This article also appears on https://medium.com/@edgington.teams, where you can learn more about Mark Edgington’s ongoing work.