How anti-hustle culture is hurting early-stage entrepreneurs
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Ew no. The only person anti-hustle culture is hurting is likely investors. Totally disagree with the "why is anti-hustle damaging" section.
Forbes is a plague on meaningful business content.
Yeah that section made me shake my head.
The author seem to define "anti-hustle" as this extreme and irrational repulsion to hard work, which is just way too narrow-focused.
The reality is that everyone is different and an optimized work-style is never going to be "one-size fits all". Sounds like the hustle culture genuinely helped the author find inspiration and motivate herself to build a business, which is great, but it's wrong to just assume everyone responds the same way to that.
But I guess at the end of the day, having more polarizing ideas is what the internet like to share and talk about, so we can naively hope that, in real-life, she has a more balanced mindset than what she writes here.
Yes to everything you said! And that last line...about forbes 🔥
Seems the author is pumping out these controversial headlines to promote her new book launching this week (see paste.pics/HQYOF) ... I would take any advice from this article with a grain of salt.
Can you please explain why you said Forbes is a plague on meaningful business content?
For one, Forbes has several series that appear to be written by paid experts, but in fact are written by people who pay Forbes to write for them. Essentially, business owners pay to regularly contribute to Forbes, gaining them opportunities for marketing and social proof and, at the same time, degrading the integrating of the publication, imo.
If I'm reading something written by someone who has PAID to submit their content to Forbes (like any content created by their "Business Council") I want to know that, immediately. These articles should be labeled as sponsored content. Otherwise it's so hard to know if what you're reading is essentially a very long ad.
Totally agree with the author that it’s all about balance… but he seems to assume that “anti-hustle culture” (if you want to call it that) is the opposite of hustle culture. Like, where hustle culture is nuts about hustling, then anti-hustle culture must be nuts about sitting around. It’s not.
I am opposed to hustle culture. But I work hard when I need to work hard.
Anti-hustle culture is not about avoiding discomfort, and it certainly doesn't view resilience as toxic (that doesn't even make sense). It's just saying a resounding “no” to this idea that you have to work 100-hour weeks. That’s all.
I agree! I was particularly annoyed by that same line in the article, "It views the concept of resilience as toxic and unnecessary." That's just crazy. I know not a single person (for or against hustle culture) who would say resilience is toxic and unnecessary. Wtf.
Time to rethink success! Success is more than money, now — it's living your ideal lifestyle IMO.
Starting a business takes work, there's no doubt about it. But you don't have to sacrifice your well-being to make it a success. In fact, in my opinion, that would not be a success.
But living one's ideal lifestyle, or even just affording one's lifestyle, does require money and to some extent success. If a person isn't successful in their endeavors, they probably don't have much money, as people don't want to pay them for their services, and then they are unable to live as they please.
I'm not someone who thinks that success is determined by one's bank account, but if a person doesn't have money it's going to be difficult for them to live their ideal lifestyle.
Everything requires sacrifice. Nothing is handed to someone for free. So, I think it's fine to sacrifice one's well being in the pursuit of cash that will then free a person to live their life. If the alternative is being unable to afford the lifestyle a person wishes to live, then the sacrifice is worth it.
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I'm not saying money is unimportant. I'm saying that it is a means to a nice lifestyle. And therefore making money at the cost of a good lifestyle makes no sense long-term.
As an early-stage entrepreneur, I've learned that there are times to hustle and there are times not to hustle. Knowing which one you need at each stage of business growth is surely the key to success.
But how do you know when to go all in and when to take a 'what happens, happens' approach? I don't think any new entrepreneurs get it right the first time and I don't think there's a one size fits all approach either. What works for one founder, doesn't work for another.
I actually had a really good conversation about this on my podcast last week with Jodie Cook.
The quick summary is that "hustle" is a key ingredient in most early-stage businesses. There is a lot of movement, action, and generally, a lot of shots taken that aren't super targeted and in order to go through enough of those in a relatively short period of time you will most likely go through a period of "hustle mode"
The important thing however is to turn that mode off once you have some traction.
Thoughts?
I've been there! Grinding away, thinking I was getting ahead but just burning the candle at both ends. 🔥 It's funny how we trick ourselves into believing more hours = more success. Balance is the key, and each founder has to find their own sweet spot. Props to those who've shifted from the hustle hardcore to sustainable growth
Agree with the general tone of the discussion in the comments. We've seen so many founders burnt-out by the hustle culture that an "anti-hustle culture" is a healthy and reasonable trend. Of course, you will not have impressive short-term gains you could've achieved working 16 hours a day but, on the other hand, focusing on work-life balance encourages leaders to automate, prioritize, and delegate, instead of mindlessly "hustling". Yes, the startup market is crazy and the early bird takes the worm in most cases. Still, in the long run, hustle culture hurts your processes and makes founders impossible to work with (because they expect everyone on the team to show the same level of dedication).
I believe in smart hustling:
YES to keep up awareness and attention on your work;
NO to burn yourself in the process.
Isn't the whole IH movement about being "anti-hustle"?
For me personally I tend to find a good balance between having internal motivation and having an external push. But articles like these are not helping in that.
Ultimately, it's about striking a balance between these two. Extremes of any approach aren't likely to result in success. You don't have to kill yourself to build a successful product. You also can't sit on your ass and expect it to grow itself.
IHers need to be honest about what they want with their projects or they'll get in over their heads. It's about what makes you happy and fulfilled. For some that's a job or working with indie hacekrs. For others, that's grinding hard to a big exit. Neither is necessarily wrong.
I like the tone and conclusion here. The internet seems to be so very damn prescriptive. In lots of cases binary, an either "do" or "do not" recommendation. "All" or "Nothing". "Rich" or "Poor". Maybe it's because of click bait links and titles. So, it's nice to find something that says think about these things, and act responsibly.
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Exactly. So, if I've understood what you've stated, then you suggest not that the type of behavior, itself, will not lead to success, but that if it's not internally-induced, then it won't.
Much could go wrong in between malleability and the state of a missing inner drive that induces persistent behavior.
Note: to avoid discouraging others — I don't have persistent behavior for things that I dislike, but I do for things that I understand/enjoy. And that seems universal.