Ever since childhood, your parents raised you right. They told you to get the best education that you could. They told you to study hard. But they also told you to work hard to achieve your goals.

By working hard, they told you that you could have everything you could ever desire in your life. Money. Wealth. Fame. Or at the very least, a strong and stable career.

With how tough the economy has been over the last decade, we have seen that isn’t the case. You could work hard and still be let go from a Fortune 1000 company. You could work hard and still have your business fail on you. You could work hard and still be unsuccessful.

Some of the maids and housekeepers in the world are the hardest working people in society. But have they truly achieved success in their own lives?

Rome Viharo, CEO of Audience Unlock feels the same way. In fact, he believes that working hard to achieve your goals is an impossible concept for any type of entrepreneur, especially if you are running a business.

Rome says that you should believe the exact opposite–To get that concept completely out of your mind.

Why?

If your startup, project or company is truly hyper efficient – it should be generating more attention, engagement and revenue while works less to achieve it.

But what does that mean?

Working less means taking less steps and making fewer behaviors to achieve the same goals. It also means ‘thinking less’ and certainly worrying less.

It means that any expenditure of resource, be it conceptual, intellectual, creative, administrative, or pavement pounding is constantly reducing and becoming easier to perform.

Rome recognizes that most people like to talk about how much they work. He sees that people talk about how they work 18 hour work days at their startup.

Emma Seppala, professor at Stanford and author of The Happiness Track says, “We may not like to feel stressed, but we wear it like a badge of honor.”

Rome, much like Emma, believes that needs to stop.

The fact that you are working 18 hour days is a clear sign that you need to improve your process. Otherwise, you are failing.

The goal?

Holistic organizational efficiency.

But how do you achieve that?

Rome believes you do that through designing a culture, system or process where less hours are required, yet more revenue is coming in.

Sound impossible?

Many times, it may sound like it is. But when you use that as your baseline for success, you will find ways to improve, if even slightly.

It’s an impossible idea to not work and get paid. Yet, at the same time, the more you work towards that goal, the higher your chances of success are.

Sure, you may not achieve 100% efficiency, but even a 30% improvement brings down your workload by at least 6 hours a day.

Your work should be exhilarating, not debilitating.

Try implementing this strategy today.

You can start by doing what Rome did when he started. Incentivize your people by rewarding them with less stressful workloads when they come up with solutions to your work processes.

Have you made an improvement in your business processes? I’d love to learn more! Comment below.

Originally posted on Inc.

Leonard Kim is Managing Partner at InfluenceTree. At InfluenceTree, Leonard and his team teach you how to build your (personal or business) brand, get featured in publications and growth hack your social media following.