The Hustler’s Playbook: The Unvarnished Truth About Hustling

Right now the word hustle is in vogue. A lot of people use the word, but it doesn’t mean what they think it means. It isn’t about the accolades or the bling. It isn’t about starting businesses with no real commitment to making a real go of it.

Honestly, there isn’t anything glamorous about hustling. Hustling is about doing the work. Mostly hard work. And a lot of it, too.

It’s about getting up early in the morning to take care of business. The non-hustlers are still safely tucked away in their beds, warm and comfortable, when the hustler has already finished a couple of hours of work.

It’s about staying up late because you have deadlines, real deadlines, and the deadlines that you’ve imposed on yourself. The commitments aren’t glamorous. But the results are worth staying up to achieve.

Hustling is about eating lunch at your desk. It’s about eating dinner at your desk a good bit of the time too. The idea of always having lunch with someone important to your business is a great idea, but when things are moving, you don’t have time. You do the work.

No one wants to spend time away from their family. No one is proud of the fact that they missed time they could have spent with the people they are hustling for. Much of the time, that is what hustling requires of you.

Hustling is about work product. It is about producing. It’s about results, outcomes that you can measure and point to. You know that the hustler is hustling because they leave a trail of results behind them. The non-hustler produces what they need to get by while the hustler produces enough to break through and break free.

The truth about hustling, about producing, is that it isn’t sexy. I’ve been guilty of talking up the hustle here, and I stand behind the ideas I’ve shared. Those ideas are true.

The nice house, the nice car, the financial freedom and all of that come only when you’ve done the unglamorous hard work required for long enough to produce those breakthrough results.

The unvarnished truth about hustling is that it’s all about doing the work.