On Hustling

Sometimes people ask what hustling is. This great poster by Joey Roth provides one answer:

The "hustler" image on the right is pretty much what I try to do every day: lots of work, lots of messaging. The messaging isn't always directly related to the work at hand--sometimes I'm supporting other people with their own hustling. But on a good day, there's plenty of work and and plenty of messaging.

Another way to look at it is:

Style without substance = flash. (Also, no one respects these people.)

Substance without style = unknown. (Everyone who knows these people respects them... but not many people know them.)

Style with substance = impact. (The goal.)

Remember when we talked about strategy and tactics? The interesting thing with hustling is that people can copy your tactics without understanding your broader strategy. Charlie Gilkey recently referred me to a similar quote from The Art of War: "Everyone knows my tactics, but no one knows my strategy."

When you take the time to build something worthwhile instead of just taking up space, you engage with strategy and tactics every day. And you hustle.