One of the easiest things to do, is also one of the hardest. And that is make more money. But that’s exactly what the hustler does.
There are several sub-categories of hustlers in my opinion, each of them has their own merits and detractors. But all of them are focused on making more money.
The basic idea is, if you make enough money, you’ll be financially free.
There are three common ways that people will attempt to make more money.
First, getting a better job. They might get an MBA to qualify for that management position. They might work hard to be the senior sales person, or “job hop” to a new company so that they constantly increase their salary. I worked for my first company right out of college, and increased my salary by almost 50% within the first year by working hard and making the boss look good.
Each of these has their own pros and cons, but eventually they will hit some type of limit. Either because they simply cannot meet with more clients in a day, the company only pays so much, etc.
Second, they work the side hustle. Hustlers are those people who are always working, moving, etc. This means working a side job, whether as a freelancer, a second job, or working one of the popular gig-jobs like fivr, Uber, etc. Some of the people will work to build passive income, that is something that earns you money, even if you aren’t working the job. This could be designing t-shirts on a print on demand company, writing a book to sell on Amazon, etc. Regardless, they’re going to work to bring in extra money.
Finally, the third type is the one you hear people mention a lot, but is actually rare. The people who build a successful company. Think of the Jeff Bezos, or Elon Musks of the world. People will try to tell you it’s simple. Step one, build something that is successful, step two, enjoy being a bazillionaire. Of course, in reality, there are hundreds of steps between the two, and why there are entire books written on the subject of starting a business, but that’s a different story…
So let’s look at the pros and cons of being a Hustler. Because there are different types of hustlers, some of the pros and cons will be specific to some of those types and not others, so please, bare with me.
Pros
Working for a promotion, or changing jobs is one of the easiest things a person can do to earn more money. Especially when you are just starting out. In fact, many people only stay at a job early on for a year or two because you can easily make more money when you are at the floor level. Depending upon the size of the promotion and jump n pay will change how easy or difficult that next jump is.
Because of technology, working in the gig-economy has never been easier. It used to be difficult to break into freelancing, finding clients, having an ability to bill them, but now you can quite easily, and you don’t necessarily need any extra special skills.
This is especially if you are younger, you will find you have energy earlier in your career to make those advancements, to hustle along.
Due to changes in healthcare laws back in 2010, more companies have started offering part time jobs, which means picking up a semi-steady, semi-reliable job is easier than when those jobs were handled by full time personnel.
Due to technology, starting a company is easier than ever before, especially if you have some technological skills. You don’t have to have as much inventory and a large staff to create a workable business.
Cons
Just like with saving, noting can be all positive. So let’s look at some of the hustler cons.
If you are looking at promotions and/or job hopping, you’ll find that as you become more senior, it is more and more difficult to get promoted as there are not as many of those positions. I knew a carpenter who worked really hard as an apprentice, and then got an early jump to journeyman. Unfortunately, there were only about 1/10th the number of journeyman positions open as there were apprentice positions. And the promotion actually cost him work, even though he was scheduled to make more money.
If you are working on a promotion/new job, and it takes a new degree, that slows your progress right out of the gate. Often a new degree will take between one and four years to realize, and a lot of money if you can’t convince your current work to pay for it.
Excessive job hoping is usually looked on negatively by new companies, which means they may not want to hire you. Now the definition of “excessive” varies by industry. In some industries if you are with the same company more than a few years, they begin to wonder about you, but in any company you can run into too much hoping if you are not careful.
There are only so many hours in a day, and you can only do so much hustling. So no matter what you might want, working a full time job and a part time job might be all you can physically do. (Working an additional part time job might be tough depending upon your regular job.) This will negatively affect your attempts in the gig-economy as well as other places, so be mindful of your time.
If you’re “hustling 24/7” are you really “free” or are you working yourself to death without enjoying your life. One has to be careful of taking anything to extremes.
If your hustle type is starting a new company, note that most people have started multiple companies which have failed before succeeding. In fact, most companies who start, are closed within 3 to 5 years, depending upon your industry. Some close even faster than that.
Hustling by creating a company, is often dependent of factors that you cannot control, and thus has a huge risk factor associated with it. Timing is often considered the most important element of any new business, and trying to time something is really difficult. That includes timing when your competitors come after you. Consider MySpace, Friendster, and other… all supplanted over the years. And while Facebook seems like the 800 lbs Gorilla right now, it too could be supplanted in the future…nothing is guaranteed.
Conclusion
For any success, there has to be some hustling involved. Where, and how much is up to you. If you’re willing to assume the risk, it can turn the fastest reward (especially with a good promotion or side job) that will start you on your way to financial freedom.
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