There’s a unique rage within me that is reserved only for the word hustle. No matter what the context, whether it’s someone telling me to go quicker, or an exhausted business owner justifying to me why they get up at 4am or work late into the night.
Worst of all is the side-hustle, I have an irrational, almost physical reaction to the word. Although, I will say this: the song, The Hustle by Van McCoy & the Soul City Symphony, is pretty good.
Hustle isn’t working hard
Now, don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with working long hours, doing your best, or following a passion when you’re in full-time work. But please, have a good, well understood reason to do so. The word hustle is not enough. Being like someone else, someone who has a life you only see a snapshot of on social media, is not enough.
The cult of hustle, and it is a cult, is damaging to the economy, the sustainability, and the sanity of the world.
‘Pick-me’ entrepreneurship that covers social media like an infestation is aggressive, abusive and worst of all, not applicable to 99% of all business owners.
What modern entrepreneurship and hustle do is take the wrong lessons from working hard and working smart. If I work eighteen hours a day, which is hard, I will be a success. But also, I should be smart, constantly looking for a hack, a loophole, or a way to just ‘follow these simple steps’. If only I can both work hard, and bypass all that hard work, I can find the miracle. And all of this is built on the idea that wealth, power and success are the same things. And worse, they are what everyone wants and what everyone values.
But is that true? Does everyone value hard work? And even if they do, why does it matter if working hard doesn’t get you what you want? The question should be: what do you want? And will it make you happy if you get it?
Comparison is a hall of mirrors
Humans are a comparing species. We compare everything to everyone. Strong as an ox, richer than God, bigger than Jesus. Our modern world has taken this concept and put it on steroids.
Social media allows us to compare ourselves to anyone with no context. Want to feel less attractive than the world’s most attractive person: one click. Want to feel bad for only working 9 to 5: we have that. The comedian Bo Burnham described the internet best – “anything and everything, all the time.” It’s no way to run a business, and it’s no way to live a life.
This article, and the work I do as a Change and Growth Consultant, tries to adjust the mentality away from the idea of comparing yourself to others. Instead, it’s designed to look at what you really want from your business, hell, your life – and what you genuinely need to do to get it.
Then, and only then, you look towards your customers. What do they want? Sure, look at your competitors, study them, research them, but don’t judge yourself against them. Instead, understand what you want, research whether your customers want it, plan properly, and then execute a strategy that you have designed with a good mentality and expert knowledge. It’s difficult, but it is healthy.
To pull back the curtain on my business; I co-parent. This means I look after my son for half the week. I need flexibility – so I have built my business to accommodate that. Does that mean I am leaving money on the table? Sure. But I put together a plan that defined success as willingly leaving that money on the table for something I care about more.
Rather than being someone I am not, I aim to do what I’m good at, when I am good at it. As a morning person who hates admin, I end up being creatively spent by about 3pm. This doesn’t make me a bad person, or a person who is better or worse than you. It just means I need a particular type of business to make the most of my abilities.
So, using the exact techniques I tell other people to, I have built my business to accommodate that.
I tried to change who I was, to be more this, or that, but it was exhausting, and mentally cruel.
It’s better to build a business that fits me than to build a ‘me’ that fits a business I hate. And it’s better for your customers too.
So don’t change yourself, or be someone else. Be yourself and build a business around you that’s as unique as you are.
