The Hustler’s Playbook: Four Enemies of the Hustle

These four things will destroy your hustle.

Doubt: Doubt is a killer. The more you doubt that you can accomplish your dreams and goals, the more you manifest that result. As much as people glamorize hustling, most of the work isn’t glamorous. It requires more time, more energy, and more dedication than most are willing to invest. It isn’t easy, and it comes with failures, setbacks, and serious challenges. It requires a faith. A faith in your ideas. And a faith in yourself.

Greed: There is no doubt that hustling and creating value produces an increase in your income. That’s one of the reasons you hustle, no doubt. And there is no shame in wanting more—as long as you are willing to be more and do more to have more. But greed is different. Greed means that you will do whatever is necessary to make money, including hurting other people. There are people who have hustled their way to massive fortunes without being greedy. And there are greedy people with relatively little who believe the only way to have more is to put money above anything and everyone else.

Jealousy: The one great thing about watching what other hustlers do is that they show you what is possible. At some point, you learn that may hustlers aren’t smarter than you, they just work harder. But jealousy will destroy your hustle. You don’t produce better results by focusing on what someone else has. The fact that some hustlers are doing better than you are now has nothing to with what you can achieve. The more you focus on others, the less you are focused on what you should be doing. Admire there hustler. Learn from them.

Lethargy: You can’t hustle if you don’t have the energy. You can’t get up early, stay up late, and sustain the level of intensity necessary to build your dream if you are lethargic. The very word “hustle” means to act with haste, to move fast, to get things done. Time by itself doesn’t produce results. Neither will money. If you want to bring your dream to life, you need a relentless energy.

• Do you believe in yourself with every fiber of your being?
• Do you put being more and doing more before having more?
• Are you focused on what you can do instead of what someone else is doing?
• How do you maintain the energy you need to hustle?