I see no sense in that statement at all! You might learn the most doing it the hard way, but easy? I don't think so.

I think what the statement means is that if you try to take a short cut don't be surprised that it may just end up creating other/more problems. You mind as well go ahead and just do something the long and correct way to begin with because having to fix the problems or do things over again because you are tyring to make things easier will usually just create more work in the long run.

I do sort of agree with the concept of the quote for many things.