The Hustler’s Playbook: Let No One Tell You What To Do

If you want to be successful, let no one ever tell you what to do.

• If someone has to tell you what your goals are, then the only goals you have are someone else’s goal.
• If someone has to tell you what your major responsibilities are, then you aren’t doing enough to be as successful as you might be.
• If someone has to remind you of what you need to do, you might be failing them, but more importantly you are failing yourself.
• Heaven forbid anybody ever having to tell you what to do. If someone has to tell you what to do, then you squandering the gift of being human and wasting your initiative, your resourcefulness, your creativity, and your determination.

If you work for someone else, develop your own goals and define success for you above and beyond what your company needs you to do. Seek out new responsibilities, and take it upon yourself to find what needs to be done and do it. Be so proactive that no one will ever dare to remind you or tell you what to do. Do all of these things and you will soon find yourself in a leadership role.

If you want to be an entrepreneur, own your own company, and do your own thing, there won’t be anyone there to tell you what to do. Unless and until you develop the ability to do what is necessary without ever being told what to do, you aren’t ready to strike out on your own. And until you are willing to do what must be done–even when you absolutely don’t want to–you’ll never reach the level of success of which you are capable.

Learn from everyone. Seek out good advice. But let no one ever tell you what to do.