The Closet Mugger/Hustler: Hustling Behind Your Back

Hey, have you started studying for the exam?

uh… not really. I will be studying next week. Actually when’s the exam? (proceeds on to study the last chapter of the exam.)

Photo by Philippe Bout on Unsplash

I am sure most of us know friends that are closet muggers. Those that put on a facade of laziness towards school but secretly studies harder than you. Or maybe some of us are guilty of doing this as well. And I believe this phenomenon is common in the real working world as well.

We may often wonder how our seemingly lazy colleague is able to get so much work done. Or maybe why our colleague suddenly became a Microsoft Excel expert overnight.

Is there anything wrong with studying or hustling behind someone’s back?

I would say that it is definitely annoying when someone says that he or she did not study for the test but clearly did. Because it feels like a mini betrayal as he or she lied to you.

They gave you that false sense of security that it is ok to not study since they did not too.

And when you realized that they were putting on a facade, you feel backstabbed. Hence, yes. It is wrong since you are lying.

However, in my opinion, it is understandable to hustle or study behind someone’s back. This is because of one main factor — expectations.

Expectations are stressful

Expectations are stressful. When you tell someone that you have already studied, they will then expect you to do well in the test. After all, you should be prepared for it. And the notion of people knowing that you are prepared creates an expectation for you to better perform. And when you don’t perform, this failure is gonna hurt even more as people will then doubt your competency.

On the other hand, if you put on the facade that you have yet to study and does poorly for a test, people will understand why you did not do well. Their expectation of you is lower since you are “not prepared”. And when you do perform well, people will then attribute your success to your intelligence and competence and not the amount of hard work you put in behind their back.

Hence, many of us prefer to work quietly, away from the unnecessary stressful expectations of others.

Ultimately, I think that there is nothing wrong to be a closet mugger or closet hustler. It is perfectly understandable. However, try to be more truthful with your friends. I am sure true friends will respect your decisions and maybe even help you with your work.

With that being said, we should also try to be more comfortable and confident with what we are doing; be it studying for exams or working on a new business idea. We should be more confident with our own capabilities and worry less about others expectation.

Happy hustling!

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This post was previously published on Medium.

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