Was reading a thread about working hard. Heres a lesson:
I've always worked hard. Thought I had to because I'm in a field often joked about for making no money. Add being a woman and growing up deaf, "work harder than everyone because you have to beat their expectations". (1/4)

So I worked on speech impediments / lisps, graduated on time, high GPA, had a job in my field before I left college, had side jobs in my field, worked after work to build a stronger portfolio and skill set. (2/4)

What did that get me? "well, we need to convince [NAME] to work, so we're giving him [THE DREAM PROJECT] to try and convince him to do some work here and we know you can handle what was on his + your plate." I got punished. The guy doing minimal got rewarded with my goal. (3/4)

Work hard yes but work hard for YOU. Work smarter, work with boundries. Most importantly, make sure you get what you earned.
Also, this is not a callout post for the place where this happened so please don't start digging! I've been lucky 99% of my career with great places (4/4)