When the Hustle Hurts

Advice from a recovering hustler

Some of us are not made to work for other people.  Some of us are or would be better off being our own bosses.  With the technology available to us today, this is becoming more possible than it might have ever been.  But we still have to make that transition from working within a company, to finding success for ourselves.  One of the popular ways that many are pursuing, myself included in this bunch, is to establish a blog or a website and hustle, hustle, hustle until you make it.  When we start a project that might lead to what we perceive to be our happiness, it’s like catching a glimpse at the light at the end of the tunnel.  Once you see that light, you’ll do anything to get there.

I’ve mentioned before that I had many jobs that I haven’t liked, that I suffer fools poorly…and man did I work for a lot of them.  So from a very early time, I had started looking for ways to work for myself.  I saw other people around me doing it, watched and analyzed how they made it happen.  I didn’t have capital to invest in something.  I lacked any creative ideas for stellar projects for which I could create a Kickstarter or GoFundMe campaign.  I had my personality, my ability to write a short piece of content, and a bunch of different hobbies.  So I started a blog and tried to make something happen.  And I failed to make something happen.  So I started another blog and tried to make something happen.  And failed again to make it happen.  It almost became cyclical.  Someone once told me that I run from jobs, or more pointedly, that I run from any adverse or negative situation.  The truth is, that I was so unhappy and at such a low point in these other jobs, that any stress or negatively made it feel like an oppressive weight.  I’m not excusing the fact that I made a lot of bad decisions – both at these jobs, and when leaving them to go to another job.  I was very much the architect of my own situation.

As I was working tirelessly, hustling, to make one of these dreams happen, I was setting myself up for failure.  I was doing work, for the sake of doing work, blogging for the sake of blogging, reviewing for the sake of reviewing.  I was being a jack of all trades but a master of none.  I was chiseling out a very nice little pain cave and making it just cozy enough to stay there.  But the hustle doesn’t have to hurt, it doesn’t have to lead to failure.

Advice:

Daydream – Actually spend time thinking about what makes you happy, what your perfect job would look like and really imagine yourself doing it day after day.  Is this something you want badly enough that you’ll spend your free time making it happen? Is it what you truly want, or is it just different enough that you think it’s what you want.  My first blog was a yoga review website and blog.  I received over $2,000 worth of yoga mats, blocks, and clothing, was finding places and ways to teach.  But my problem was that yoga was something I liked outside of work and here I was turning it into a job.  If you’ve ever tried being a yoga instructor, unless you have the capital to start your own studio, it’s really tough to make it.  Had I spent the time, thought and really thought about, I might have kept yoga to myself.

Before you Hustle, Research – When you have found something that you really truly love and could do it full time, even sacrificing some of your other passions to make this one be lucrative enough to become your day job, make sure that the opportunity to turn it into your day job exists.  Here in Pittsburgh, I thought I could break into the yoga scene, but there were already so many teachers vying for students and studio time/space that it became very competitive.  Even if there was an opportunity to turn it into a full time job, I didn’t want to turn my personal practice into something commercial after all.  Or when it came to reviewing books, yes, there is a potential to turn any site into a money making engine when you sell ad space, but it takes a lot of time and energy to get to that point.  I was hustling and reviewing, but the pain came from the realization that I didn’t have the patience to stick it out and get there.

Stay Focused – There will come a point where you find what you want to do, and have explored how you can make it happen, and then you are ready to start your hustle.  Recognize that it will take time, that chances are, you will have to work at a job you don’t like for a bit before you are ready to make the switch.  There were times when I let my hustle outside of my day job, affect my ability to perform my day job.  My dreams and I suffered for it.  Had I stayed focused, while I was working my 9-5, and hustling to make my dreams happen outside of that time, I might have made it happen sooner.

Stay Open – Don’t hustle so hard that you let opportunities pass you by.  Let’s take me owning my own marketing company for example.  You may have to take some jobs or do some work pro bono in order to gain the resume or the skills to do the job for which you will be asking people to pay you. Find some startups or charities that could use your expertise and volunteer your services and provide you with a recommendation or portfolio piece to show to future prospective clients.

Hustle, Don’t Hurry – If you scramble to make your dream job happen, you set yourself up for pain.  You don’t enjoy your days and you miss opportunities to be happy and have fun.  I was so caught up in the hustle, and everyone on Twitter made that sound normal, that I made myself very unhappy, very stressed, and I shed a lot of tears over it.  Work hard, but remember to take time to play, to enjoy life.  Take the time to read and learn and grow as you hustle, because it will make you more experienced, knowledgeable and more successful. You will have to make tough decisions when it comes to not rushing things, but you will be happier and in less pain because of it.

So where has all of this life taught advice left me? Practicing what I preach.  Just because I have found a way to be my own boss, that doesn’t mean the work stops.  In fact, it’s even more important now to stay keep wondering and planning, researching to avoid stagnation and to continue developing.  At the same time however, when it’s time to work and more poignantly, working from home, the amount of distractions increase, so staying focused is a work in progress.  Staying open sounds like a no brainer, but it’s harder to put yourself out there and own it when it’s all on you – the pressure is on.

Lastly, starting a business is the completion of one chapter.  Now I have to write the rest of the book.  The hustle will continue, but I am determined to make sure that it’s positive growth not pain, that is the result.