What people call "hard work" is two different things.

One is the puritan work ethic, forcing yourself to do shit you don't feel like doing, day after day, to achieve some goal. That may or may not lead to a better life, but it always leads to burnout.

The other thing is obsession. You are intrinsically motivated to put in a ton of hours on something, and you get really good at it.

The problem is, society is veering farther from human nature, so that there is less and less overlap between what we're obsessed with, and what society considers useful.