Hard work does pay off

I've been thinking a lot about failure recently. 

Today, we returned results scripts to our students. Most of them did fairly poorly. 

I was told some of them cried. They are the ones who've put in a lot of effort, paid attention in class, never missed a lesson. It must've been really painful to see their hard work in vain. 

I remember when I was in primary school. I cried when I received one of my higher mother tongue exam results. I have gotten a 49/100. I cried because I wish the teacher either found a mark for me to pass or gave me terrible marks so I wasn't even close to passing. Looking back, I think I wished my efforts translated to good grades.

Now I know not all our efforts will give us a good outcome. But you'll never regret if you put in your best to strive to achieve better. 

I reminded my students today that hard work does pay off. I hope this too will motivate you to keep going.