You Need to Hustle, Buddy. It’s the Only Way to Success

But does it actually work?

This will be a two-part series on beliefs I had that led me to nowhere. 💁‍♀️

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For a long time, I believed that suffering was the only way to success. They told us struggle was the price. No pain, no gain, right? As if it were a formula written in stone. If I wasn’t exhausted, doing shitty jobs, then I wasn’t working hard enough. That’s how life works, after all. The hustle. The grind. The struggle. All painted as some romanticized fairy tale. It seemed like it was the only way. The true path to success. As if the grind itself would magically unlock the door to what I wanted to achieve.

But that belief turned out to be entirely wrong.

When I was pursuing my makeup career, I had many side jobs. I had one awful job. The worst I’ve ever had. And guess what? My career didn’t grow because of it. Instead it drained me. What actually moved my career forward was my persistence: constantly emailing, calling, and trying to find work and opportunities wherever I could. My blood-sucking job and suffering did not build my career. Doing the work that mattered did.

There is a strong culture around hustle. Grind harder. Hustle more. There is a whole cultural narrative around it, with its gurus and faithful fans. They’ve created an entire economy. Maybe the economics are too strong for it to change narratives.

Picture this: the great hustler seeks the misery and insecurities of others, cashing in on their struggles. Our miseries become someone else’s gold mine. As if suffering and doing things that suck the blood out of you is exactly what you need.

Think of burnout. It’s been glorified as a badge of honor. Because ruining your health is something to be extremely proud of. That’s what it takes, you know! For me, the notion of burning out is quite counterintuitive to being productive. I’ve met people who had burnout, and it took them a year to recover. A year they could not work or function. So if you aim to gain time and be highly productive, well, let me tell you: burning out is just doing the opposite.

I’ve fallen into this trap quite a few times. I was obsessed with stretching my days. I was sleeping very little. I felt the need to sacrifice my sleep. I owed it to the gods of success. Thankfully, my husband was constantly telling me, Hey, don't fuck up, you need to sleep. And yes, that man was right. How sadomasochist of us. To be willing to put our bodies in such an unhealthy situation.

Now I see. I no longer align with those hustle-culture voices. I went into this reflection: What is the point of working hard, go all in, if I am not in good shape or health? What is the point if I will not be able to enjoy it?

Also, now I have the data (my life experiences) to argue that the hustle is not equally correlated to success. I was putting in the effort. The pain was there. Was I hustling? For sure, I was, but did all that give me the outcome I wanted? No. It drained me out, but it did not give much in return.

And let me be clear: not chasing the hustle doesn’t mean avoiding challenge. Challenging yourself is good. Facing uncomfort too. You will have moments of dire emotions. It is bullshit to think that you can live a life pain-free. Suffering is part of the human experience. Sometimes we need to sit with tough emotions and situations and face them.

What made me question the hustle culture was looking back at my life. In hindsight, I saw the big picture. I was able to see what was actually moving the needle. I had to take that shitty job, but I thought that all the shittiness was making me more worthy of success. As if it was thanks to all that shit that I made it. But it’s not. Those were things I had to go through, but what I’ve achieved is not thanks to it. It gave me lessons, but it was not an important element for my achievements.

I still believe that you need to work hard towards your dreams. But hard work doesn’t have to mean constant suffering. Yes, it’s not all a bed of roses. Sacrifices will be made. Yet, you can actually find joy in it.

Reflect on this:

Is the suffering you are going through actually moving the needle?

Because hustle culture doesn’t guarantee success. Grinding away with the hope it’ll somehow “earn” your success? You’re gambling your life if so, and for what cost?

The most important thing is that you need to find what actually moves the needle. What the real bottleneck is. You can put in 100 hours of work, but if it's not the work that actually matters, then it's not going to move things forward. It is about choosing the best system at a rate that you can keep up in the long term. What’s the point of killing yourself if in three months you are burned?

What beliefs about success may be holding you back? Share your story in the comments! I’d love to hear it.