21 Mar Everyday, I’m Hustling

Everyday my life consists of running around here and there. Work, family, social life, starting a new business, it never ends. When you want to have it all there’s no rest for the weary.  And I do want it all, trust and believe. The only way I get through it is by keeping my eye on the goal and by hustling. Everyday, I’m hustling. I try to get sleep like you should, but I’m OK with losing a little sleep. Sometimes I lose a lot of sleep and the days are a blur, then I start over again. Losing track of which day it is every now and again comes with the territory.

You have to push the envelope. If you stop, all progress stops. I’m not saying you have to do it all alone because you can’t, that’s a fact. If I didn’t have constant support and encouragement, it wouldn’t work, plain and simple. Inevitably, you’re also going to need an extra set of hands and another brain to soundboard with. It took me a few years to figure it out, but now it’s as clear as day. Start-up success takes:

• Passion for your great idea
• The guidance of people smarter than you
• Prototyping and testing to refine your plan
• Support from other entrepreneurs in your community and
• Your friends and family

When your support system has your back on everything, you can keep hustlin’. I get it now, but it didn’t start that way.

The Beginning – Pre-Hustling

There’s the old adage: “Those that can’t do, teach.” Well, I spent the last eight or so years teaching Founders how to run a business. I would often impress upon the ones starting out that they gotta hustle-hustle-hustle. Not to say that I chose teaching because I couldn’t launch my own start-up. The truth is that I never really tried. Probably because trying to start a business and failing was a scary proposition. Maybe it was because I really like my sleep. Or maybe I didn’t want to know if the old adage was true. It was easier to choose teaching and telling over the unknown.

Sharing shoes – Hustle what you Preach

Then one day, I got the chance to-do. A Founder came to us and said they couldn’t get done what we were asking. It was all too much. I didn’t know how it could be too much. They had employees and a budget and a salary to allow them to set time aside to dedicate to their business. We were supporting with strategic guidance and managing accounting and finance. But still, it wasn’t working.

As a last resort, we offered to take on more. We had fresh ideas and expertise, but the Founder wasn’t jiving with any of it. After a short time we got the kibosh put on our new role. We were hoping that this exercise would renew a spark in the owner. That taking back the reins would start a chain reaction that would lead to the comeback of the company. Neither thing happened. What it taught us is that you can’t have passion on behalf of others. You can’t hustle enough on behalf of others either. It’s not a recipe for success.

We also learned another important lesson. It took three of us to do what we were asking the Founder to do. Our focus was split. We had other things that we needed to tend to that were also important and sometimes more important. Doing too many things for someone else without any of the passion is a non-starter. If we hadn’t gone through it ourselves, we would never have known that for sure.

Hustle your own hustle till you drop or until it flops and not a minute sooner.

When people talk about having it all, it’s not what you think. Being born into money with an endless amount of chances almost never happens. If you’re in the 99%, then having it all comes right after you have worked harder than you ever have before. It comes from realizing your success when you’re doing your best. The all is not getting it all for doing nothing at all or doing it halfway.

So what’s the formula for having it all? It’s simple. You gotta hustle for your passion and have passion for hustle or it doesn’t work. Without passion it’s not worth the loss of sleep and without hustling you can’t keep it moving along. You will have to make compromises and hard choices along the way. Something’s always gonna give.

Running a business has its ebbs and flows. When you think you can’t do it anymore get support from your fellow entrepreneurs. When you can’t think of what you should do next, ask an expert. If you’re looking for the guidance of an entrepreneurial community made up of Women, Join Built By She. We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two. We’re living and breathing it every day. We’re all about it and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Everyday we’re hustlin’.

Photo credit:  Tate Allen

A group of uber smart women spend all day in different disciplines and then come together for the purpose of helping Women entrepreneurs.