 He also says if you believe that hard work pays off, then you work hard. If you think it's hard to get ahead, even when you try, why try at all? Similarly, when people do fail, this mindset allows them to look outward. I once ran into an old acquaintance at a Middletown bar who told me that he had recently quit his job because he was sick of waking up early. I later saw him complaining on Facebook about the Obama economy and how it affected his life.