The Hustler’s Playbook: Bet Big On Yourself

I am just back from speaking in Las Vegas. Getting to the conference center required a walk through the Casino at Caesar’s Palace. There are two kinds of people you see in a casino.

The first group, usually seen playing at night, has set aside some money to gamble during a night out with their friends. They aren’t gambling because they believe they are somehow going to solve their money problems or end up with real wealth (even if some do get carried away).

The second kind of people you see in a casino, even during daylight hours, have not set aside money to gamble on a night out on the town with their friends. They’re playing with money they don’t really have, believing that luck will find them and solve their money problems.

The people in the first group have bet on themselves and ended up in a position where they have money that they can gamble and lose. The second group of people bet on luck finding them because they don’t believe in themselves enough to place that same bet on their own success.

Non-hustlers won’t bet on themselves because they don’t believe that bet is well-placed.

• They believe they have better odds of being lucky than figuring out how to generate the results they want for themselves.
• They believe that the chances of winning big in a casino are better than the chances of their following through with their commitment to do the work necessary to succeed.
• Non-hustlers believe that forces outside of themselves are what determine who you are and what you have.

Hustler’s bet big on themselves, knowing that they cannot make a safer bet, nor can they place a bet that pays off at the same level, or over as a long a period of time.

The business you talk about starting is a bet on yourself. That course you want to take so you can change careers is a bet on yourself. The time you spend working on your own hustle late at night and early in the morning is a bet that you can build the version of you that comes after this one.

Bet big. But make that you bet on the one and only thing worth betting on: You.