Many of us pride ourselves on our work ethic, but in the professional world outworking everyone isn’t a sufficient strategy for getting ahead. Hard work is the basic ingredient of career advancement. Not much will happen for you if you’re not willing to put in some serious effort. But it also probably won’t set you apart from your peers as much as you might think. One of the quirks of working life is that we usually sabotage our ability to differentiate ourselves on the basis of how much effort we put into our jobs.