Is it really work or just busy work?

Is it work if you don't get paid? In physics there is a definition for work that involves applying force that causes some movement over some distance and within some time frame. In other words you apply a force to something and it moves so far in such and such amount of time you have done "X" amount of work. The idea is that if you applied force all day long and the object never moves then you haven't actually done any work. Sometimes I can end a week in the real estate business and feel that way - that I've been applying all of my marketing and sales skills and yet nothing has happened. I sometimes ask myself - then have I done any real work? I know that I have gone to work every day and that I have worked for 10-12 hours each day, accomplishing things that seem to need to be done; but, at the end of the day and week, if nothing has sold or no new listings have been added, have I really gotten any work done? In the end, if I don't get a paycheck, do all of these things that I've spent time on constitute work or do they just take up time.

Of course, I normally snap out of this philosophical quagmire and acknowledge to myself that the things that I spend all of this time on (at least most of them) are important to the business. They are things like keeping fliers out in front of the homes, keeping the MLS and other Web sites updated, providing feedback to the owners and much more. All of those things are necessary to keep the business going. So, I did do work and I will eventually get paid for it. The real estate business is just one of those where the rewards are often delayed.