The Art of Hustling

The Art of Hustling

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Hustling receives generational preferential treatments.

Our Boomer friends will hustle for a nickel while they’re spending a dime. That’s not me saying, “We should all be like the Baby Boomers”; au contraire, Boomers are notoriously lacking in funds and digging further in debt (see my blog called, “Baby Boomers are not exactly booming into retirement”). That aside, they know how to get to the top of the corporate food chain.

Ask yourself if you’ve arrived. If you’re under 40 and you say you have, you’re not dreaming big enough. If you’re any age and say you haven’t, what’s stopping you?

Let’s first address the “early arrivers”. My minimalist humans, your idea of arriving is having the basics covered. You’ll likely never hustle and be okay with that. I don’t have a bone to pick with you. My super achiever humans, your idea of arriving is having a lot of accomplishments and deciding to just stop while you’re ahead. – Please don’t sell yourself short. You are a rare commodity, and America needs your gusto.

Next, let’s address the “never arrivers”. Really, what is stopping you? Take the time to make a list of the external and internal forces impeding your desired destination. Then, do everything you can to eliminate the relevant threat of those forces. Now, this does not look like you asking for someone to legislate your purpose into existence; this does not look like you accumulating insurmountable debts; this does not look like you pointing out how unfair someone’s advantage is over yours. All of that looks like a perpetual victim mentality, which is the exact opposite of hustling. What this does look like is you taking ownership and control where you can, and then bypassing avenues where you can’t.

This looks like Madam C.J. Walker who became the first self-made millionaire woman in America by the time she passed in 1919; by the way, she was a black woman born of slaves on a plantation. She didn’t wait for someone to give her permission to make hair care products; she hustled. She didn’t ask if she could sell them door-to-door; she hustled. She didn’t wait for an invitation to open her own warehouse; she hustled. This is what we need to get back to.

Financially speaking, people use money as a major excuse for why they are not where they want to be. Money is, undoubtedly, freeing; however, it does not define you. You can make more money any day you choose, and you can restrict your budget as soon as you choose to live below your means. This is an area where I can help you pinch a penny until it screams. If money is one of those forces impeding you, remember you control it, it doesn’t control you.

C’mon, America. Do the hustle!