I was reminiscing today about my business and my life and just thinking over the times where I’ve experienced the most growth or had the BEST results.

When I looked long enough I found some “spikes,” it was not that smooth. I was actually a bit disappointed. I was confused as well. I work hard all the time don’t I? Is this just luck?

Guess what I found when I probed long enough?

1. It had NOTHING to do with luck.

2. I DIDN’T work hard all the time.

3. It was 100% correlated with how hard I was working…

I Call This The “Hustle Effect…”

Now, what I’m about to say is 100% against what EVERY single “self help” book teaches you, so just deal with it If you don’t agree, no problem, just don’t complain to me later on when I’m right!

Here is what I saw in my life with the “spikes.”

Every time I had the extended success, I found that I was “heavily motivated” by something. I was working LATE hours and I was just going and going and going. Those were times when I actually remember not knowing what day it was or what I had to be doing that day.

What a crappy life? Right?

Now all the self-help books blab about this “balance” crap. You know, “don’t bring your work home…” blabbady blah.

Bottom line is that that is 100% baloney. The truth of the matter is that you NEED to bring it home and to your car, to your shower, everywhere you go!

I completely agree that a “smart” businessman delegates. You have a great “A player” team that you can delegate and that will allow you to take more time off. However, do you know how expensive it is to have this kind of team?

How do bridge the gap from when you can’t afford that team to when you can?

You work your tail off…that’s how.

See, when looking back, I saw that the MOST success I had came from the times when I was hustling around. I wouldn’t take no for an answer and I was doing EVERYTHING and ANYTHING it took.

Then, when success started to hit a bit, I got comfortable with my nice big car, my beautiful condo, my take-out food, etc… Now, I find myself spending hours a day sometimes watching movies.

Then, I wonder why the growth has slowed from what it was years ago? DUH!

I have a new rule for myself starting yesterday - i’M TURNING THE HUSTLE BACK ON.

I now wake up and come to the office and the first thing I do is make a list of everything I have to do that day. I make a “to-do” list.

My rule now is that I will NOT leave my office until that list is finished, period. I know that I don’t have the discipline to work at home, too many distractions - so I just won’t allow myself to go home.

For example, it’s 6:30 PM on a Friday evening and I’m at work. Oh well, I still have 6 things to finish. Hustle time, HUSTLE!

NOTE: I’m a single young guy, so yes, I have less responsibilities. For those of you with families and other responsibilities, please adapt my rule above accordingly to your lifestyle. Just don’t buy into some of the self-help mumbo-jumbo, you WILL have to work your tail off if you wanna become something.

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Tags: hustle, success

This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 6:32 pm and is filed under Fighter Mentality, Motivation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.