the Hustle
5 Reasons Why You Should Not Keep It Up
A blogpost that goes to show what impact the the online so called “hustle culture” has on individuals.
What Does “Hustle” Mean? The Fake World Of “Hustle Culture”?
Hustle
Britannica defines the word hustle as “to quickly move or push (someone) often in a rough way” or “to move or work in a quick and energetic way”. There are several meanings and definitions of the word hustle.
For the sake of this blog post, I am interested in the definition of those gurus who sell the “hustle culture” in the first place and describe it like this:
“When you have passion around something, you will keep squeezing every last bit of the juice out of the orange, right? To me, hustle is maximising the energy you put into somebody. … To me, hustle is putting all your effort into achieving your goal at hand. And than for me that means, making every minute count.“
Gary Vaynerchuk (YT: GaryVee)
The Fake World of “Hustle Culture”
If you enter the “hustle culture” you will soon realise that your job is putting all your waking hours into working toward your set goal, whatever it might be.
In your mind, people who are not as productive as they could be are losers, as everyone can only reach their maximal potential by staying ambitious. Working ambition is what defines you now. It sets you aside from the masses and makes you feel like you are the hero.
But in order for you to become the hero, this means that you have to wave your hobbies, friends, family, and time for romantic relationships goodbye.
Reason 1: Hustle Culture Keeps You Small
What if hustle culture doesn’t save you from the system? What if it’s a system within a system?
This is the shiny world of hustle culture: becoming your own boss, to be a CEO, freeing yourself and your family financially and living your best life, travelling and meeting new people…
These are just some of the common buzzwords used by the people behind the “hustle culture” phenomenon.
What this culture actually does is:
- Generate curiosity
- Build you up
- Introduce you to a community of like-minded people
- Feed you information on how to get rich quick
- Give you hope
- Instill in you the idea that you and only you are responsible for your success
But there is also a 7th step. After a few months or even years, this very system will tear you down. It will leave you with shattered dreams. But worst of all, it will make you feel worse than ever. You will feel smaller and more insignificant than ever before. And why? Because it’s you who didn’t work hard enough on your goals, giving it your all and working 24/7/365.
Example Quote
“Hustle until you no longer have to introduce yourself.”
Reason 2: You Are Still An Average Consumer That Is Sold A Dream
It doesn’t matter how you get into this movement. You will soon realise that if you really want to make it in this new found system, you will have to pay someone money.
It is usually a private course. The owner of the course is all out to explain to you why this course is groundbreaking and why you need to sign up for it.
You may be intrigued at first. But once you fall for it, you’ll realise you’ve been tricked. You could have found all this information for FREE on YouTube.
So before you sign anything, ask yourself if it’s really worth it? Do you want to buy this product you’ve been offered because you need it, or because you’ve been brainwashed?
Reason 3: Your Mental Health Starts To Deteriorate
Let’s say you are at stage 5 (which gives you hope) in the whole “Hustle Culture” system. What hope does is it keeps you going and keeps you moving.
Other people out there have gone through the exact same thing. It worked for them, so why shouldn’t it work for you?
Maybe you just need to be more motivated. Perhaps you’re not working hard enough. Could be you’re missing some new information that your favourite online guru just released that only costs $20 more….
The human brain automatically looks for new ways to achieve the desired result. Especially when it’s driven by the desire and the addiction to make it big. Especially when you’re thrown into a community that has the same goals.
At some point, you will realise that there is so much information and knowledge out there just waiting for you to buy it. But what actually happens is that your mental health suffers. When there is too much information and too many voices in our heads, we feel more and more pressure.
When there are too many paths to take, it’s easier to just stay where you are. Stuck. This is where it gets extremely toxic because the community and your favourite guru will tell you that it’s only your fault if you get stuck. Your fault alone.
Watch the video down below and really listen closely… ⬇️
Reason 4: You Potentially Start Losing Friends And Isolate Yourself
There is only one thing that is so powerful that it drives people on and on and on. There is only one thing that is so powerful that it radicalises people and drives them even further into the abyss. And that is a community of like-minded people that isolates you from the outside world.
Most of the time, people get stuck in communities or want to join certain communities because they want to belong somewhere.
In my post about societies, we saw how societies came about and why belonging to a group is so important.
Surrounding yourself with people who are good for you, who support you and care about you is obviously very important. In fact, everyone should have people who have their back. BUT being part of a group, a community, should not exclude the possibility of having and seeing other people. People such as your friends outside that community or even your family.
What the “self-help” and “hustle culture” communities tend to do is isolate you from the outside world. They try to keep you in that bubble. And for your own good.
Because these people don’t have your best interests at heart, and if they do and still tell you to separate yourself from other people, you can assume that they too are far away and have left the real world.
Reason 5: You Become Your Own Biggest Enemy
In the final phase of your transformation into your highly successful and wealthy self, you are most likely to become your own worst enemy. Why? Because the outcome you may have been striving for doesn’t match reality.
You lost touch with reality some time ago, and when you finally open your eyes, you may realise that not everyone can be an Elon Musk or a Jeff Bezos.
To make it in this world, it’s not enough to do what millions of other people out there are doing. You don’t become a billionaire by simply copying and pasting.
The moment you realise that you realise that it’s time to get real. Don’t make fun of something that was 99.9% doomed to fail before you even started. It is NOT your fault.
Conclusion
The problem with hustle culture is that it is very unlikely that all people who participate in this self-help method will make it. Sure, everyone thinks they are the exception to the rule and another success story, but that may simply not be the case.
People are being sold a dream. A dream that so many out there have. The desire to get rich, be financially free and not be tied to one place and the same old job just seems too tempting.
The reality is that this culture makes you doubt everything and everyone. Once you realise that there is no real escape, only a system within systems, and are willing to accept this, you will be free.
Extra
Let’s take a deep dive in the world of self-help.