“Hustle ‘Til Your Haters Ask If You’re Hiring.”

I do a lot of reading on my beloved Kindle and follow several blogs. Mostly to find stuff I can rip off and use for take the lemons.. 🙂

A “guru” named Tai Lopez (www.tailopez.com) likes to say, both in his Instagram posts and writing, “Hustle ’til your haters ask if you’re hiring.”  If you’re a social media addict like most you’ve probably seen one of these hustle memes or quotes hundreds of times. In my experience I can tell you that “hustle” is garbage. This “hustle” attitude creates anxiety, burnout, and will leave you spinning your wheels, getting nowhere.

I try to badmouth as little as possible – but you know why he preaches hustle right? He wants you to hustle over to his checkout page and buy his $995.00 super rocket launch accelerator course and add in $69.95 a month of subscription extras. Oh, he also wants you to join his email list so he can pelt you daily with horrible affiliate offers from snake oil salesmen like Anik Singal and Sam Ovens. Please avoid guys like this, he’s just another internet marketer.

Moving on..

I know this “hustle” mindset has been around way longer than I’ve been alive, but lately it’s popping up everywhere. Especially in the business world. “Hustle” was a term used in the rap game (I think?), by con artists, or by a dude wearing bell-bottoms and a fur coat. (My dad in the 70’s) Now it seems one of the latest and greatest business and personal development strategies.

A gentleman I admire, Neil Patel of Quicksprout, even titled his new book Hustle (Amazon Link). I’m sure it will be awesome material, but why the title Neil? At a time when our world is noisier, crazier and moves faster than ever before.. why are we preaching “hustle” so much? What we need is the OPPOSITE of “hustle” my friends…

Suddenly I dig who I am at that moment…I am out of space…Boy, does it feel valid! Does it feel real! It feels like the first real thing that’s ever happened to me! Everything else had a hustle like quality to it. Except my constant suffering.

-Ram Dass, Be Here Now

A Means to An End

Hustle, at least where I’m from, has negative connotations. It implies a shortcut, something temporary. A means to what is most of the time a financial goal, or some other achievement that you can showcase to the world. The hustle lifestyle is a means to an end. 

Now they’re saying you can “hustle” everyday towards your goals in life, your desires, your future wealth. You can hustle till you prove everyone wrong and they ask you for a job or for your friendship. Then you can laugh your ass off all the way to the bank and shove it in their faces. Nice.

What are we doing when “hustling?” We’re living for an end. If we’re doing it the right way, as these gurus tell us we should – then every fiber of our being is focused on some goal, some end, and that becomes the thing we hustle for, day in and day out.  Our life purpose is attaining a future end.

And what is this end goal though? I’m guessing for many it is money, power, beautiful friends and an even beautifuler spouse. Why do we want these things? Our desires are products of our emotions, our insecurities, our sense of lack. Of fear or jealousy.

Furthermore, the hustle is a struggle and fight against your present situation. Resistance and conflict against the most important person in the world, yourself. An all out war on your present environment can only lead to unhappiness, frustration, worry and anxiety. Isn’t it easy to see?

Sure you’ll be distracted and keeping yourself busy, busy. But we’ve all had those moments when it gets real quiet, and you think. Will you be angry with yourself if you haven’t made that million overnight? Will you keep telling yourself to live for tomorrow, live for a year from now, live for five years from now when you’re a billionaire or buddies with Elon Musk or something? Will you keep focusing on proving your worth to the world? I spent years in that shit, and it was killing me inside.

Stop seeking some future world that does not exist. All that you have is the now, the exact second you read this is the most important moment of your life. It is the only moment of your life.

The way we think about time really screws us up. The past and future both do not exist. All you have is this very second. And now this one. And now this one. I know, I’m annoying.

You’re An Idiot, Paul. Sounds like You’re Advocating Laziness..

Before you rush to call me a lazy ass give me a chance to explain. What matters to me is not as much the “what” I do, but the “why” and the “how.”

I don’t use “hustle” as a strategy of avoiding and substituting for the pain of my present situations.

Don’t run away from yourself, don’t put your energy into something that does not exist! The only solution to the pain and frustration with your life is to live it brothers and sisters. Embody it. Analyze it logically and befriend it. The only way out is through, friend. Be who you are now, there is no one else. If you attain your goals you are only giving yourself false evidence of value. You will love yourself when you have more money?  When you help so many thousands of people? When you attain a certain possession?

Why? Why won’t you work to love yourself as you are here, today? The key to the entire universe, the meaning of life, is you. We are all looking to each other for the meaning of life, it’s happening right now. You are the miracle. You have a gift to give the entire world. You are the one. (Thanks to the insanely amazing Kute Blackson, buy his book now if you haven’t already)

Enough preaching, when I stopped hustling I started living, plain and simple.

It is the quiet mind, the still mind, which brings about transformation. When the mind is no longer resisting, no longer avoiding, no longer discarding or blaming what is but it simply passively aware, then in that passivity of the mind you’ll find if you really go into the problem, that there comes a transformation.

-Krishnamurti, Total Freedom

Negative Emotional Foundations

Would you ever say someone is “hustling” for a spiritual fulfillment?  Hustling for a relationship with the universal mother, God, Buddha, Allah, however you may refer to it..?

Nope. Hustle implies maximal focus and effort on worldly goods, possessions. Most times these intense desires are built upon negative emotional foundations of:

• Revenge
• Insecurity
• Shame
• Jealously, Feelings of Lack
• Fear of Loss
• Fear of Death

But you’ve got one life and you want to make some noise! You want to be heard, be seen! You can change the world! They’ll notice you and be sorry they ever ignored you!

Usually all of these internal chatter and desire for accomplishment is just that shitty feeling that you aren’t “good enough” causing you to crave validation of your worthiness.

I get it.

I understand those feelings. Completely. I felt deep shame and guilt over who I was for so many years. I sought validation and attention every second I could for years. It was a tortuous existence. I still deal with these feelings and it’s a daily process of forgiveness, intentional thinking, healthy decisions and taking care of my body and mind.

The point of this post is to remind you to please be logical and mindful of why you want what you want. Is it to impress others, to convince yourself that you matter? Is it to prove “them” wrong?

It’s not so much the “what,” it’s the “why” of your desires. The goal is to live with less desire but that is a practice which takes time. However you can start asking yourself “why do I want this?” Sounds simple, right? Because it is. And you can start right now.

Thanks for reading.