What is hustling? Often times it’s associated with some kind of shady, illegal, or at least unconventional ways to make a lot of money. See, for example, American Hustle. But on the flip side, it also involves being resourceful, unconventional, proactive, and persistent in the face of obstacles. Ultimately, it’s often related to making a fortune and achieving financial gains—nothing wrong with that per se. I’d argue, as an entrepreneur, the name of the game is to hustle.
Some of us have hustling in our blood. From a very young age, I made jewerly out of wax and sold it to one of my playmates---that didn’t go well when her mom told my mom. I sold all my study books after I got early admission. I worked as a tourist guide to take foreigners to the Great Wall. I taught Chinese calligraphy. When I came to the U.S., despite the difficulties of finding a job without a working visa, I worked as a translator for a hearing aid company, a cashier at a Chinese restaurant, and a law clerk at a DUI defense lawyer’s office, to name a few.
It’s not just about the money. Of course, if you are born with a silver spoon, you probably never see the need for the hustle. It’s more about thinking creatively, making new connections, finding new ways, building new things, and ultimately turning that into a profitable business.
For me, hustling is more like a mindset, an attitude, and a relentless pursuit of new ideas, ventures, and opportunities. It’s more about staying curious, open-minded, risk-taking, thinking out of the box, not being content with the status quo, willingness to learn and grow, and working hard to achieve results.
Silicon Valley is full of hustlers. Steve jobs started Apple in his father’s garage. He always talked about “stay hungry, stay foolish” and “It's not about money or connections — it's the willingness to keep getting up after you've been knocked down." He also said, “I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance."
Elon Musk, despite his reputation for being an “asshole”, is a firm believer of putting in the hard work to achieve something extraordinary. He’s always preached urgency and hands-on determination to push through obstacles and achieve his goals. In an interview, Musk stated that "I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary." He also said, "Work like hell. I mean, you just have to put in 80 to 100-hour weeks every week. [This] improves the odds of success. If other people are putting in 40-hour work weeks and you're putting in 100-hour work weeks, then even if you're doing the same thing, you know that you will achieve in four months what it takes them a year to achieve."
Similarly, Jeff Bezos, the founder and former CEO of Amazon, is famous for his drive to succeed s and his relentless work ethic. He has often been described as a "hustler" in the business world, and is known for his ability to identify new opportunities and grow his companies quickly. He said, "I'm very convinced that there's going to be a lot of successful entrepreneurs in the next 20 years who will be very, very young when they start their companies."
Jack Ma, the famous Chinese entrepreneur who started Alibaba, was a school teacher and spent years trying to found a viable business before founding Alibaba. He is known for his perseverance and determination. He has been quoted as saying, "Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine."
What happens when a business or an entrepreneur doesn’t hustle? Then you are complacent, happy with the status quo, big, fat, and slow. Kodak, Blockbuster, Sears, and Blackberry, to name a few infamous examples. When a company loses the attitude to hustle, it becomes stale, lagging behind, unable to adapt and compete, and ultimately dies of failure to innovate. In that sense, hustling is not just a nice to have; it is a must-have to stay innovative, hungry, and upcoming.
Is that a thing called “hustling too much”? I believe so. The names that come to mind easily are Enron, Madoff, and Elizabeth Holmes. Hustling doesn’t mean losing the moral and ethical boundaries to achieve your goal by all means. Hustling definitely doesn’t mean engaging in illegal and deceiving activities. That’s not hustling. That’s more like criminal manipulation.
In addition, like everything else in life, hustling needs a balance. Hustling doesn’t mean working at all times 24/7. Hustling doesn’t mean you burn yourself out and then have to quit the race. Hustling, like entrepreneurship, is a marathon. We must take care of our health, our family, and our relationships ad pace ourselves.
So that’s why we created our company. That’s why today, we are hustling really hard to build our product, raise money, gain customers, and become a profitable business. Tomorrow, when we do become a bigger and more successful company, we will continue to stay curious, innovate, find new ways to grow, and be open to new ideas and business models. That’s why instead of working our comfortable corporate jobs and collecting a paycheck, we choose to be entrepreneurs and embrace all the uncertainty, difficulties, and challenges that come with entrepreneurship. We think of ourselves as Hustlers.
So, do you hustle? Drop me a line. Let’s chat.
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