The Real Reason Hard Tasks Lead to Massive Growth
Tough problems build tough founders
This is the 455th consecutive post on MrEmogical Notes. If you’ve been following this series and are finding value from this blog/ newsletter, please consider sharing this post with one person who you feel needs to read this for their betterment.
Introduction
Most people misunderstand difficulty. They think the moment something feels hard, something must be wrong. But in reality, difficulty is the price of greatness, and the way you interpret that difficulty defines your entire future.
There are two types of people in business, careers, and life:
- Those who stop because it’s hard.
- Those who start because it’s hard.
Your long-term success depends entirely on which mindset you choose.
This post explores this crucial business mindset, why challenges are the best competitive advantage, and how Steve Jobs used this exact principle to reshape modern life.
The first mindset: “I stop because it’s hard”
This is the mindset most people operate with, often without realizing it. When a challenge becomes uncomfortable, complicated, or demands deeper discipline, they interpret it as a sign that they should quit.
This mindset creates:
- Self-doubt
- Overthinking
- Reduced effort
- Loss of momentum
- A quick retreat back to comfort
- A belief that success is “not for them”
People with this mindset see difficulty as a barrier, not a filter. They assume “If it’s hard, something must be wrong”, and that is where they lose.
Everything that leads to extraordinary achievement, business scaling, brand building, innovation, wealth creation, and personal mastery is supposed to be hard. Easy never changed anyone’s life.
The second mindset: “I start because it’s hard”
This is the mindset shared by high performers, successful founders, elite athletes, and world-class creators.
They understand a simple truth:
Hard = valuable.
Hard = exclusive.
Hard = worth doing.
For them, difficulty is not a signal to retreat.
It is a signal to enter.
This mindset creates:
- Higher resilience
- Long-term courage
- Better problem-solving
- Faster skill development
- Increased competitiveness
- A sense of purpose and mastery
People who start because it’s hard know something that most others don’t:
If the challenge wasn’t hard, everyone would do it, and the reward wouldn’t be special.
The difficulty itself becomes the moat, because every level of hardness filters out people who quit early.
And that’s why the second group wins.
Every. Single. Time.
Why hard challenges lead to the biggest breakthroughs
A hard challenge forces you to:
- learn
- adapt
- innovate
- stretch your skill
- expand your capacity
- rise above average effort
This creates compounding growth, which eventually separates you from the pack.
Breakthroughs... genuine, game-changing breakthroughs always live on the other side of difficulty.
Never inside comfort.
Every great product, business, invention, and cultural shift came from someone who looked at an impossible challenge and said, “Let’s start anyway.”
The iPhone story: A masterclass in the hard mindset
If you want a real example of how a single hard challenge can change the world, study how the iPhone was created.
When Steve Jobs and his team began working on the iPhone, almost everything about the project was impossibly hard:
- No one had built a multitouch screen at scale.
- Smartphones were bulky, slow, and stylus-based.
- Battery efficiency was terrible.
- A full glass screen seemed unrealistic.
- Hardware and software had to be reinvented from scratch.
But the most symbolic challenge was the screen itself.
The plastic screen problem
Every competitor used plastic screens because they were cheap and easy.
Apple tried it too.
But Steve Jobs hated the look, feel, and durability of plastic.
He wanted glass; smooth, premium, scratch-resistant.
The problem? Such a glass did not exist.
Corning had once experimented with a special ultra-strong glass (which is now called Gorilla Glass), but it wasn’t mass-produced. It wasn’t ready for market. It wasn’t even being manufactured at the time.
Anyone else would’ve accepted the limitation.
But Jobs didn’t stop because it was hard.
He started because it was hard.
The breakthrough
Jobs went to Corning’s CEO and said:
“We need this glass. We need it fast. And we need it at scale.”
Corning insisted it wasn’t possible.
Jobs insisted it must be possible.
Corning revived the formula.
They began manufacturing the glass under extreme pressure and tight timelines, and within months, Gorilla Glass became the standard for the iPhone, and eventually for the entire world’s smartphones.
One impossible challenge.
One refusal to quit.
One global transformation, and it all happened because someone believed: If it’s hard, that’s exactly why we must do it.
Food for thought
When things get hard, most people stop, and that’s why they never break through.
If you want success that lasts, you must adopt the only mindset that works:
Start because it’s hard.
Keep going because it’s worth it.
Finish because few ever do.
Hard is not the enemy.
Hard is the filter.
Hard is the advantage.
LEARN HOW MARKETING REALLY WORKS
If you’ve been wanting to elevate your knowledge of business positioning, funnel marketing, and brand building, it’s time to take the next step.
Attend The Brand Marketing Masterclass. A 90-minute live training designed to help you attract your ideal audience, structure your funnel strategically, and transform your brand into a powerful conversion system.
It’s completely free for now, but seats are limited, and this might not stay free forever.
REGISTER NOW to claim your spot before the batch fills up.Your views?
If you’ve reached till this point of the post, I’m sure you must have some thoughts/ feelings/ opinions about what you’ve just read.
I’m done sharing what’s on my mind, and now is your turn to share your POV.
Tell me how you are processing the information that you’ve just read?
Do you agree with my thoughts?
Do you think I missed something important?
Do you disagree with something in particular?
Let’s continue this conversation (or ask your questions about the post) in the comments below.
Keep Going Keep Growing 🚀
Have I earned your share?
Thank you for reading the full post. Since you read this till the end, it’s safe to assume you found value in the content.
Please consider sharing this post with your audience on social media. You may end up helping someone who’s struggling in their career/ business because they don’t understand the importance of building their personal brand.
I’m sure if you think hard, you will easily come with a few names who you know must read this.
Share this with them, help them, and earn your blessings.
Prompt used to create the image for the note
P.S.: Image made on Meta AI using the prompt, “Create an image of a realistic, cinematic 16:9 banner image showing an entrepreneur standing in front of a whiteboard filled with complex problems, diagrams, and crossed-out attempts. Warm lighting, focused expression, human figure in mid-thought, representing the challenge of tackling hard problems. Ample negative space for text overlay.”