Why I Hustle
How the hustler mentality changed me
I started working for myself by accident.
My 9–5 wasn’t giving me what I needed. I was sick of people telling me how much to work, when to work, and what I was worth. I was constantly bitter about the constraints on my life, but at the time, I didn’t know that there was a viable alternative.
So about seven years ago I quit what, on paper, was the best job I had ever had. I started doing contract work as a stopgap as I tried to figure out what my next thing was.
Working for myself long-term was never the plan. My parents own their own business and I told myself growing up that I never wanted that. They have been very successful, but I also saw how stressful it was weathering up and down markets, being responsible for other people’s livelihoods, and working all the time to make sure everything was running smoothly.
But the universe had other ideas.
After a few attempts at careers, partnerships, and other ventures I realized that I actually couldn’t work for someone else. Not that I couldn’t have made it work — I had opportunities to partner with great people on what would have been lucrative and interesting work — the thing I realized was, in working for someone else, I would still be ceding control of my time, work, and life. I’d still be letting others decide what I was worth.
Making the decision to work for myself fundamentally changed my life.
What started out as just a way for me to rock athleisure 24/7, work whenever and wherever I wanted, and never see an office birthday cake again, ended up completely transforming the way I think about not just work, but also personal agency, worth, and the top-down control that permeates society.
At first, it was just about me.
Operating within traditional systems of work was never going to get me what I wanted. I couldn’t play the game of performance reviews, pointless promotions, professional “development,” and warranted terminations framed as resignations. Once I stepped outside of the system, I was able to build a framework that allowed me to rely on my own choices, value, and competence.
“It is how we choose what we do, and how we approach it, that will determine whether the sum of our days adds up to a formless blur, or to something resembling a work of art.”
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Prosperity wasn’t something I could define for myself when I was struggling financially all the time as a result of letting other people define my worth. I didn’t want to spend 20 years getting incremental raises, I wanted to be in control of what I paid myself every month. That meant I needed to earn enough to make those payments.
When you’re struggling, all you can see is the struggle. Once I met my financial needs, I was able to see past the struggle — I had the space and freedom to think outside the box about what I wanted my life to look like.
Four years ago, when my daughter was born, it became about her.
I already made concessions about the amount of money I made in order to prioritize my quality of life, and that formula became even more important when I became a parent. I needed more money, more flexibility, AND devoted, uninterrupted time in order to give her the life she deserves.
When you’re 100% in charge of the money that facilitates your life, you start to think about it in different ways. The space my newfound freedom had created allowed me to rethink my relationship with time, money, and work.
Being a parent made me realize that wealth is a feeling, not a dollar amount. Every time I write a proposal or take on a new client, I’m quantifying how much my time is worth — I’m “buying” my non-work time, stealing it back from a culture that teaches us that we’re only valuable when we’re busy, working, contributing.
What it came down to was that I need to maintain a base level of financial sustainability for my family, but taking on too much work (or the wrong work) in order to achieve anything above that base level actually diminishes my ability to be a good parent and partner…a good human. This is both because I have less available time AND because I am not my best self when I’m working 40+ hours a week, doing work I hate, or working with crappy people.
In the words of Paul Graham, I had to learn to “relentlessly prune the bullshit” from my life in order to make space for true wealth. The freedom to do that is something I never would have had if I worked for someone else. I not only get to choose how I define wealth for myself, I have a unique opportunity to teach my daughter to define and create wealth on her own terms.
Recently, it became about helping others take back control of their lives.
A few years ago I started blogging in earnest, coaching other solopreneurs, and creating content to help people leverage self-employment to live better lives. As I did that, I realized that working for yourself is about more than control, it is about the decentralization of work and the reclamation of personal agency.
The Great Resignation has made that more apparent than ever. Sometimes it is only the extreme pressure of circumstances outside of our control that finally give us permission to rethink the direction of our lives…our world.
Things work until they don’t.
Turns out I’m not the only one who was sick of office politics, unequal and unfair compensation, and ridiculous expectations…in April of 2021 alone 4 million Americans quit their jobs, which was a 20-year high.
During the pandemic employees and employers found out that (shocker) we can actually do what we do without our boss breathing down our neck and tracking our “seat time” down to the minute. Many of those employees got used to their newfound freedom and/or realized that life was too short for minimum wage. By some estimates, 10 million of those people are now considering self-employment as an alternative to their 9–5.
I say join us.
We can jail-break hustler culture from the limiting beliefs around money, work, and worth. We can reclaim our personal agency and use it to help each other instead of creating a mentality of self-reliance. We can prioritize meaning over money.
© Sarah Duran 2022
Find out more about me and my company, Fruition Initiatives, here.
Image by SIphotography from iStock
The Obvious Disclaimers…
This information is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as, and shall not be understood or construed as, professional advice. What you decide to do with this information is up to you and all repercussions are on you.