If you search the blog here – you will find it written a ton of times. Many blogs are built on it. I almost think Gary Vee sticks in my head for a few minutes after I even think the word hustle!
I think my mom thought I was saying a bad word the first time I mentioned hustle to her. It does come from a rather negative background like selling / slinging on a street corner. I think of a rap song lyric
“trying to make a dollar out of 15 cent”.
But in the last decade or so – hustle has turned into something to be celebrated. To work morning til the late night trying to build a business and create an empire. I love that energy and respect the hustle (respect the hustle of hustling haha).
But Re-considering the Approach To Hustling
Yet maybe like many blog posts lately – I am changing, getting older, getting more….boring – but I think we need to step back before we start to hustle.
What I have learned in my recent merger (still too early to announce ecommerce platform) is that rushing to do something is most of the time not the right way to go about it. Maybe this is just me, but I feel many others are like this – we so desperately want to move forward that we urgently HUSTLE and rush ahead.
This has been my style for 10+ years. Make it happen, do it, hustle.
Have I been wrong all this time?
Remembering The Hustle
Browsing through the blog posts (going through memory lane) here are some posts that are worth noting
tagged with Hustle!
Leveraging the Chinese Community in Thailand
Last Updated: 01/25/2019Will Living in Thailand Make You Lazy?
Last Updated: 01/25/2019Comparing Yourself To Others
Last Updated: 07/29/2020Post DCBKK 2017 Reflection – Ripping Off The Bandaid Again
Last Updated: 01/25/2019Creating a Side Hustle Out of the Cross Border Bus Lifestyle
Last Updated: 01/25/2019US Businessman Abroad
Last Updated: 01/25/2019Gary Vee in Hong Kong Rise #hustle
Last Updated: 01/25/2019Life Changes When You Become a Parent Mike’s Blog 103
Last Updated: 01/25/2019The Times We Live For – Mike’s Blog 086
Last Updated: 01/25/2019Sunday Morning Hustle
Last Updated: 01/25/2019This is why I recommend all of us start a blog – it is so amazing to have a flashback like that above.
That was a lot of hustling!
Respect the Hustle
Sure, I think it is the fact that I am approaching 40 years old (over the hump?) and maturing a bit (think being a father is a big life shift) – and will always respect the hard work and the hustling and grinding.
Oh, to be young and full of energy!
Have accomplished quite a bit, with sheer energy and passion – but in the latest venture I am working on, we are a bit slower and more strategic. A totally different way for me and the team that I have merged into this new company have been accustomed to. So like any merger, both sides need to adapt to the other side’s way of working and doing business.
I’m adopting a less “hustle” approach.
Think, Strategize, Plan, THEN Hustle
Now I am not saying to sit back and wait. Hustling at its core means to take action and not wait for anyone to tell you what to do.
What I am saying though is – before you run off and take massive action, we need to think more clearly and have a strategy for these actions.
Now, pick up notebooks, get a plan, and make things happen!
Hustle on, my friend. Never stop hustling. I will be a hustler til the day I die – I will just be a more strategic hustler going forward (at least I hope).
Never too late to modify and change, right?
Are You Hustlin’ Every Day?
Even the slightest progress is better than nothing – make every day count!
Need that daily reminder to hustle? Check out this Hustle Notebook!
Comments
I think the hustle porn Gary V puts out is actually doing more harm than good. It gets people committed to business ideas that are usually crap but think they can make work just by doing more “hustling”. You are correct in that hustle only makes sense with a coherent plan and sense of direction, and even then I think hard work and diligence are better terms, as hustle nowadays just wreaks of the same putrid garbage as terms like growth hacking. Far better to listen to older, wiser business people than Gary Vee types. Charlie Munger, Tren Griffin, Shane Parish, Peter Thiel are infinitely better people to focus on.
In my experience people that like Gary V are usually fomo-induced wantrepreneurs, not people that actually know what they’re doing.
thanks for your insights Lars – yet the younger crowd probably would call us both old and boring – but this is the way that is the long term way!
I also think people should work for a company for a couple years before trying to start a business. The reason is the only way you learn is through reps, and you can’t get any meaningful reps with customer acquisition with a ten dollar a day budget on Facebook, Amazon, and Google for your startup, nor can you learn much about supply chain, logistics, and inventory management when you’re dealing in small, infrequent quantities because you lack working capital. Go learn how to do something from a place with resources and experienced people, then try going out on your own. Starting a business when you have no value to offer or efficient way of acquiring skills is a foolish endeavor with a steep opportunity cost. Yet this is exactly what the ultra cringe entrepreneurship lifestyle hustle porn makes young people do.