How to Hustle

The secret to success: hustle hard.

What is hustling?

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This is how I define hustling:

Working hard to achieve your dreams.

When it comes to the spirit of hustling– it means:

  1. You have a bias toward action
  2. You don’t blame others for your failures
  3. You recognize that your life is 100% in your own hands
  4. You have an uncompromising vision for your life
  5. You have a heart abounding in courage

Where can you gain this hustler spirit?

You gain a hustler spirit through pain, struggle, and overcoming.

For example, I gained my hustler spirit from my personal scars in the past.

This means:

When life gives you shit, make lemonade.

This means to transform any negative experience in your life into a positive one.

This means to have a hard stoic soul. To be above pettiness.

Also the hustler spirit is to be strong enough to undertake great tasks in life, and to become the change which you wish to see in the world.


To hustle means:

  1. Don’t be passive. Be active. Do stuff! If your dream is to become self-employed and an entrepreneur, take risks. Make cold phone calls, or make cold emails. Put yourself out there. Self-promote yourself. Don’t sit on your butt and expect to get “discovered”. You must be your own ultimate self-promoter, and to sell yourself to others.
  2. Acknowledge you’re different; and acknowledge that to be different is good. Live differently, think differently, and shoot different. Don’t seek to emulate anyone else. Strive to be you, 100%.
  3. When in doubt, take the scarier and less certain option. You cannot control whether your plans will be successful or a failure. However, you can control your ability to take riskier options in life. Learn to love risk– do what is more difficult and hard.

Take extreme ownership of your life

Jocko Willink is a good role model. Train yourself to be part entrepreneur-part soldier.

Take a spartan state of mind. Know that you have no downsides in life. You will not starve. You will not become impoverished. Even if you do fall into poverty, realize that it isn’t so bad.

This is the stoic trick:

Vividly imagine the worst-possible case-scenario— and ask yourself, “How bad would it really be?”

For example, I’m lucky enough that I’ve witnessed pain and struggle via my mom. She had to declare bankruptcy, because my dad gambled away the rent money. It wasn’t so bad — she was able to rely on her social network to get back on her feet.

Even now, I try to live extremely below my means. I know that even if I become totally broke and destitute– I will be ok. All I need is coffee, wifi, and eggs.

I’ve made $200k a year from my photography and I’ve also lived in fear as a child that we’d become homeless. I have realized:

More important than money is doing powerful work that makes an impact on others.


Music

The best role models for hustling are rappers. Specifically– rappers who came from poverty and nothing, and become moguls. For example:

Listen to their music, and hear how they were able to overcome.


Everyday I’m hustling

Everyday I’m hustlin’
Hustle, hustlin’ hustlin’
Hustle, hustlin’ hustlin’
Hustle, hustlin’ hustlin’
– Rick Ross

Treat everyday like a mini-lifetime. Reflect on the shortness of life, and hustle hard everyday. Don’t squander your life. Maximize your human metabolism to change the world for the better.

HUSTLE HARD.
ERIC

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