Ep. 48 - Unpopular Opinion: Hustling works.

Over the past few years "Hustle Culture" has received a terrible reputation. Main stream media joined this bandwagon quickly, and it soon became the norm for people to become overworked. Whether it be the truth, or some weird psyop occurring, burn out and hustle culture were now to blame for nearly everything going wrong with careers. Some of it was warranted, and some not.

Don't get me wrong, there is a toxic form of hustle culture. This comes in the form of people lingering in the office late at night to 'show face'. That form is stupid and unnecessary. It may get you to a certain stage in your career, but ultimately value and charisma will carry you much further.

Reality

In order to do something great, it'll likely take extensive work, stress, and fatigue. That's usually how life works. No risk, no reward. No effort, no win.

If you're not attempting to achieve a high-level of success, then so be it. This isn't for you, and hustle culture is definitely not for you. But if you are, then hustling and putting in extra hours when you're tired and beaten down is just part of the process. This creates resiliency and discipline through adversity. Plus, it increases your 'reps'. Business is about practice, and the more practice one has, the better they'll be at the given game.

To clarify, there are anomalies. And these anomalies are usually discovered through "survivorship bias". Just as there are few who build businesses to great heights, there were few who successfully travelled by sea in 100 BC:

“See,” says he, “you who deny a providence, how many have been saved by their prayers to the Gods.”

“Ay,” says Diagoras, “I see those who were saved, but where are those painted who were shipwrecked?”

— Cicero

We hear of people working 10 hours a week and earning $25k, maybe even $100k per month. This is possible, but it's usually ignoring the fact that there was a period where this individual was working 70 hours a week and earning $5k... Or a period where this individual had attempted numerous iterations of the business and failed.

Automation and systematization only comes with experience and financial success. Outsourcing everything from the beginning never works. Doing unscalable things early is the way to eventually perform scalable things. Then, when revenues are consistent, and cash flow is strong, you can think of hiring and outsourcing.

Closing

Articles like these are often triggering for some. Because we all want to believe this '4-hour workweek' is possible. And one day it may be possible. But likely not until a lot of work has been performed.

Plus, everyone needs purpose. I don't think everyone is after freedom as much as we claim to be. Structure, purpose, and a reason to wake-up in the morning are bigger drivers to happiness than just 'freedom'.

What I've noticed over the past ~18 months is that success is often built in the mundane. The boring work, unfortunately, is the work that gets you to where you want to go. All you can do is embrace it.