The Pros and Cons of Hustling
The things you want have a price.
It’s crazy how far you can get in life just by being extremely stubborn and persistent.
Just by not giving up, trying again and again, and busting your butt to reach your goals, you can go really far. It’s cliche, but how bad you want it really matters.
If you are extremely stubborn, you can excel in whatever you choose. You can reach the top, or at least get pretty damn close. If you only chase one thing, the odds are good that you can become excellent at it.
But it comes at a price.
Like anything, “the grind” has pros and cons. “The hustle” (that many people pride themselves on in today’s world) has a price.
Today, we’re exploring the pros and cons of ridiculously hard work.
The pros of hustling.
The biggest pro of hustling is your increased chance of achieving your desired result.
When I first started Jiu-Jitsu, I hustled like a maniac just to achieve competence. I wanted to win medals, so I out-trained all the people who also wanted to win those medals as best I could. One way or another, this led to medals and wins in BJJ.
When I first started trying to earn a living in Jiu-Jitsu, I taught private lessons for $50 a pop and spent most of my time driving all over Chicagoland doing as many lessons as possible. I became a pretty good teacher and made some money doing it.
When I first started building an online writing business, I took on as many clients as I could manage (about 11) so that I could get as many reps and create my own writing systems, earn money, and improve myself as a writer. It worked pretty well and it became the basis for what I do today.
With this newsletter, my other newsletter, or any other writing project I do on my own, the main reason that they go well for me (or don’t) is based on how much I work on them.
The pros of hustling are that all in all, it makes your life better because you are able to express a greater quality in your output and you can reap the rewards of that quality. The harder you hustle, the more you can control your own destiny — at least in the short term.
But what about the cons?
The cons of hustling.
The sexy part of this article is the things that I can do easily because of years of hard work.
I can retain guard for an entire training session in a world-class room without getting passed (click here to learn how). I can write a week’s worth of content in an hour. If I have to, I can make up a class for students off the top of my head and somehow make it make sense.
None of these things are particularly hard for me.
But there’s a downside to this.
I have herniated discs in my back that occasionally leave me unable to put on my underwear without pain — much less retain guard against top-class passers for 2 hours. I have carpal tunnel (or arthritis?) or something that causes severe hand pain constantly, thanks to years of writing “content” for several hours every day (it’s even worse if I use my phone). Sometimes, the stress of pursuing these passions for a living riddles me with anxiety so bad that I can’t sleep for days at a time.
The pros of hustling are that all of the hard work will make your life better.
The con of hustling is that if you aren’t careful, it will make your life shorter.
How to cheat death.
So, how do you get the best of both worlds?
How do you get as many pros as possible with as few cons as possible? How do you hustle for as long as you want without dealing with downsides?
The truth, in my experience, is that you can’t. You cannot cheat death, you can just run away from it for a while.
For example, you can take steroids in Jiu-Jitsu, which might extend your ability to “hustle” in the short term but will come with some negative consequences in the long term for your health. You’ll be fitter today but might die of a heart attack tomorrow. You probably won’t meet your grandchildren, although they might hear cooler stories about you from your children (if you’re able to have them).
You could get ChatGPT to do all your writing and sell your soul a bit on the creative front. This will lead to more writing output, but will also lead to negative consequences like burnout, low-quality work, oh, and spiritual suicide.
Both of these examples are a way to cheat death today at the expense of experiencing it more immediately tomorrow.
The solution is that you need to develop a strong sense of priorities.
You need to know what you want because you can probably get it, but you want it to cost a price that you’re willing to pay.
You can’t cheat death, you can just prolong it.
You can die on your terms.
Closing Thoughts
For me, the way that I approach Jiu-Jitsu training, competition, and creative work has changed a lot in the last 12 months.
You throw your back out and get burned out enough times, you start to change the way you think a little bit. The pro of all the hustling that I’ve done is that nowadays I can afford to work a little smarter. I don't need to train 3 times a day anymore.
The con of hustling is that now I don’t just need to work smarter, I have to work smarter. I can’t just bust my ass all the time like I did when I was 23.
I’m 27 with pretty much 9 years of full-time training. My mind is young but sometimes my body doesn’t feel so young.
However, the pro is that I have the wisdom that you can only get from 9 years of full-time training. I’ve learned a lot about training methods, how to train smart, and more.
So, my closing remark to you is not to do what I have done. My closing remark to you might be a little weird, but I don’t want you to have the regrets that I don’t have:
Do what you want to do and don’t think too much about the cost, but do remember that the cost exists and that one day Life will be there to collect tax from you.
Or maybe that tax collector is Death. I’m not sure.
Either way — think long-term, but not so long-term that you’re living for your golden years before your peak years have gone. Take risks, just don't take too many.
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