It takes 1200 N of resistance force to crack the pecan, but you only exert 400 N of effort force with your hand on the pliers. Think of pliers as a pair of first-class levers . The lever arm represented by the line AB is 6 cm long. The lever arm represented by line BC is 3 cm long. Atlas did no work by just holding up the world.
Energy is the ability to do work.
A machine can never produce more work than is put into it.