No pain. No gain.

I think I first heard the expression, "No pain, no gain" from one of my coaches in middle school.  It's a common expression that we still hear a lot.  It's an old expression - apparently, the first documented use of the phrase is found in an ancient Hebrew text known as the Pirkei Avot (The Ethics of the Fathers) from the second century:

Rabbi Ben Hei Hei says, "According to the pain is the gain."

In plain English, the phrase means that there is no spiritual gain without the pain associated with following God's command.  The poet, Robert Herrick, wrote in 1650, in "Hesperides":

No pains, no gains.  If little labour, little are our gains.
Man's fate is according to his pains.

And finally, the American patriot, Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1734 in his Poor Richard's Almanac:

Industry need not wish, as Poor Richard says, and he that lives upon hope will die fasting.  There are no gains, without pains...

So even as early as the second century, leaders (spiritual as well as political) recognized that success depended to a great extent on hard work and effort.  I am reading a great book right now called Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth (if you don't want to read the book, watch her TED talk).  There is a chapter in the book on motivation and effort ("Effort Counts Twice") in which Duckworth provides two simple equations that show how talent turns into achievement: 

(Eq 1) Talent x Effort = Skill

(Eq 2) Skill x Effort = Achievement

With some simple Algebra (my wife, who is an Algebra teacher, will be awfully proud of me), using the magic of substitution:

(Eq 3) (Talent x Effort) x Effort = Achievement, which simplifies further to:

(Eq 4) Talent x (Effort)^2 = Achievement

In other words, effort does count twice!  Only through a mix of talent and effort can we achieve success.  More importantly, Equation 4 tells us that even the most talented individuals will not succeed if they do not put forth any effort.  Talent, as they say, is indeed a little overrated.  There is no gain, without a little pain.