I was first rewarded for my hustle when I was on the baseball field. But is that type of hustle the right type of hustle for business?
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Hustle is an interesting thing.
I was first rewarded for my hustle when I was on the baseball field.
Sprint onto the field. Sprint on every play. And, of course, sprint off the field. Or else.
And it didn’t matter whether I performed well or if I performed poorly. Regardless, I was rewarded for my hustle.
Now I’m an entrepreneur. And as an entrepreneur, hustle is a topic that people can’t stop talking about. Gurus and experts and idiots all talk about hustle being the key to success. They’ll tell you to run through walls and never quit.
I read a quote the other day that nearly perfectly captures the current state of hustle:
“Hustle means going all out, every day, until you hit your breaking point – and then continuing on because hustle doesn’t break.”
But is that the type of hustle it takes to succeed? Do we really need to hit our breaking point?
What does it mean to hustle?
Good hustle is hard work pointed in one direction.
It is not hard work pointed in a billion directions, and it is not soft work pointed in one direction. Good hustle is hard and focused.
This doesn’t mean that the hustle has to be hard all the time. You need breaks (admit it). It also doesn’t mean that your direction needs to remain the same forever. Things change. Even if the goal or vision stays the same, the way to get there will need to adjust along the way.
Hey, keep this in mind. There’s no one way to hustle.
A salesperson’s hustle may look much different than a surgeon’s hustle. If we put salespeople under the microscope, two equally successful salespeople may have completely different types of hustle.
It’s easy to forget that “hustling” doesn’t necessarily mean “going as hard as you can for as long as you can.” And even if you manage to remind yourself that there’s no one way to hustle, it’s very easy to slip back into the habit of hustling like the kid on the baseball diamond.
In spite of there being no one way to hustle, all good hustle has something in common: Hard work pointed in one direction.
Not all hustle is created equal.
Have you noticed something?
When I give tips on hustle, I usually refer to “good hustle.” See, there’s a difference between good hustle and bad hustle.
No, I’m not talking about ethically here (although strong ethics are included).
What I’m talking about is what makes hustle effective, and what makes it ineffective. When your hustle leaves you incapacitated or too tired to function, then it may not be good hustle. When you’re working hard without focus, then you’re really working hard on nothing.
Don’t do the bad hustle. Do the good hustle.
The good hustle.
What’s the good hustle?
The good hustle gets you places. It makes you real progress. And it actually leaves you energized to do more work.
Yes, long nights are included.
Yes, you’ll get tired and stressed.
Yes, challenges will present themselves and obstacles will get in your way. People will tell you NO, doors will close, and you may question if your decisions are the right decisions.
But here’s the thing about good hustle: You’ll know for certain that the results you’re getting are true.
Here’s what I mean. When you’re not pointing all of your hard work in one direction, then you’ll never know what’s working and what’s not. Think about this like an elementary school science fair. You have a volcano, and you have 10 ingredients that could potentially make it erupt.
Putting all ten into the volcano at once may make it erupt, but how would you know what actually worked? The more likely outcome is that the volcano won’t erupt at all. At that point, how do you know what didn’t work? Well, you don’t.
Instead, put one ingredient in. If it works, then you know it works. If it doesn’t work, then you know what doesn’t work.
Don’t be mistaken here! Good hustle doesn’t guarantee success. Really, the result of good hustle is a result you can trust.
Knowing why you succeeded is almost as important than success itself.
Because what’s success if you can’t replicate it?
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Photo: Flickr/Alonzo