GDP seems to be misleading due to its computational intricacies and has failed in establishing a positive correlation with the level of happiness. Hard work is the key to success. Hard work sure has its rewards. Hard work has no substitute. These widely uttered epigrams reserve great value. Active hard work appears in the form of laborious chores. Covert hard work supports man’s realm of thought and ability to conduct research. Moreover, it fits into the list of national values contained in the constitution of most countries. GDP is the aggregate monetary value of goods and services produced in a country during the year. The massive production of goods and services calls for the best utilisation of four factors of production: land, labour, capital and organisation. It is hard work that optimally regulates these factors of production. It establishes that GDP is the quantitative measure of hard work done by the effective population of a country in a year. Substantial hard work has the power to take people out of chronic poverty. Absence of poverty means people are good at their pockets. More the buying power, more the landscape of economic activity Among all the economies with sustainably growing GDP, the higher level of productivity has been recorded as a common feature. Achievement of higher productivity is, indeed, possible through hard work. Japan has the world’s third-largest GDP after the US and China. In Japan, people have surpassed the concept of doing hard work. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, many companies have started offering complimentary lunch to employees who sleep for at least six hours a day. Scotland and Canada pay productivity bonuses to their labour as a token of their hard work. Hard work has put GDP of China, US and Japan on the horizons of stability and growth. It would be fairly right to claim that hard work is the qualitative measure of GDP. Substantial hard work has the power to take people out of chronic poverty. Absence of poverty means people are good at their pockets. More the buying power, more the landscape of economic activity. It creates more demand for goods and services and, hence, the need for utilization of factors of production arises. This is again accomplished through hard work on the resources. Thus, the economy seems to be active in the hands of an instinctive motivation, which incites the labour to work with greater commitment and improvised efficiency. Again, hard work becomes the control house of economic ventures. Working hard is equivalent to protecting a national asset, which is intangible and depreciates with the growing age of the people. Older the labour factor of production, lesser the ability to engage in hard work. Usually, Asian ethnicity is capable of working hard from the age of 25 to 45 years. The graph of efficiency starts declining in later years. The spread of hardworking age in Australia stays between 25 to 60 years due to longer life expectancy and better health. In the case of Pakistan, somewhat 50 per cent of the total effective population is deployed in the agriculture sector. Hard work speaks very high of itself. Around 25 per cent of Pakistan’s GDP comes from the agriculture sector. It could be called the numerical measurement of hard work done in livestock, poultry and crop cultivation. GDP may rise due to the increase in the level of “spending on consumption” in a country. But hard work is the actual dynamic that contributes to the overall GDP, focusing on all four factors of production. Keeping all factors of production, knowledge and entrepreneurship constant, hard work is justifiable in terms of numbers. Being a quantitative factor, GDP seems to be misleading due to its computational intricacies, which is why it has failed in establishing a positive correlation with the level of happiness. According to UN World Happiness Report 2019, Pakistan falls in the list of top 20 happiest countries of the world, with Finland at the top while India falls at 93rd place. Though it has been seen that countries with the world’s highest GDP are among the happiest. According to the UN report, one per cent change in GDP per capita would result in only 0.3 per cent unit change in happiness. It implies that GDP might be misleading sometimes. For example, Costa Rica was 13th happiest country of the world in 2018, while the US stood 18th on the happiness index. Statistics prove that Costa Rica’s GDP is less than that of the US, but people are happier there. Under this scenario, the quantitative measure of GDP is suspected to be flawed. For a common man, the biggest stakeholder of economic ebb and flow, understanding the concept of GDP could be tough. Everybody could otherwise easily comprehend the philosophy of working hard for the good of the economy. Pakistan’s government could launch campaigns to animate in people’s minds that hard work must be practised in good faith and without negligence. It could get the people of Pakistan acquainted with latent power of being industrious. The writer can be reached at waheedmba@yahoo.com