benzado

"I think you should know something about me first. I never tried hard at anything. I was born smart on a very working-class estate. A couple of people I knew went to university apart from me, but all the way through I was the smartest kid in the school. That’s luck, but I was proud of it. And I was also proud of doing well without trying. As you get older, and it took me a long time to realise it, that’s a disgusting attitude, revolting. It’s ignorant and it’s a tragic waste, and I realised that the work itself is the reward. The struggle itself is the reward."

Ricky Gervais (‘Before The Office I never tried hard at anything’ | Life and style | The Guardian) on the difference between “being smart” and “working hard”; see also this related New York Magazine article by Po Bronson.