In sports the performance of those at the top of their game is something that stands out as unique and maybe even awe-inspiring.  The performances can be so complete and so effortless that we cannot help but marvel at the results that they obtain.  In fact, they make it look so easy that the average fan or observer even thinks that they could do it just as well.  But excellence in the performance is only a fraction of the effort, practice, dedication and commitment that the performer has put into their craft to make it look so easy and effortless.  Fans, customers and observers only see the performance, the time out from behind the scenes; they don't see the late nights and early mornings of training, study, and preparation.  They don't see the multiple physical training sessions each day, the missed birthdays and anniversaries and the evening out with friends.  They don't see the commitment, preparation and hardwork necessary to achieve at excellence and excel at the performance.  Excellence requires all that; sacrifice and hardwork.  For it is hardwork that is at the core of achievement and the formula for success.

Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they’re making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that’s the difference.  Lou Holtz

Hard work is an essential element in tracking down and perfecting a strategy or in executing it.  Charlie Munger

Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig. Malcolm Gladwell