The Myth of the Hustle

I want to shatter this myth that if you somehow are earning money on the side while trying to build your startup you are not committed.

There’s a set of people who come from a very privileged place that can raise money for their startups at the drop of a hat and they can work full time on their startup, and you know what that’s great for them.

But I think there’s deep dark secret that a lot of founders don’t even want to tell the world, that hey my startup isn’t paying my full salary yet and I need to do work that pays my bills.

And the honest reality is, this is how my father became the American dream as an immigrant. He had a full time job, and he had other businesses and now, guess what, he’s retired and super successful.

There’s not some VC telling him that because he didn’t commit to one thing, that he wasn’t valuable.

I think a lot of founders deal with this. They don’t want to talk about it because somehow there’s a notion that if you are doing other things, you aren’t committed to your startup. But if you are trying to hustle and have to have another income stream, I believe you are actually more committed!

Everyone would love to have their fledgling startup be their main income, that would be so easy. It’s much harder trying to survive and have to do two or more things to make ends meet. Nobody wants that life. To me it’s a sign of commitment that you have a side hustle to support your main hustle.

I live in a very expensive city (San Francisco), and even though I’m on rent control and I do my best to manage by burn, I still have to survive.

And while it’s obvious to me I’m 100% committed to my startup (and if it’s not obvious to you, I may not care). It’s also obvious to my customers that I’m 100% committed (check our reviews). I need to do whatever it takes to keep my business afloat.

I think post startup success, everyone loves to share stories of their hustle. Everyone talks about Airbnb and how they sold cereal to keep Airbnb alive. That’s a beautiful story, it’s a wonderful depiction of hustle. But they only shared that story after they succeeded, right? When you are actually doing the building, when you are actual doing the hustle, most VCs and the rest of the world probably would not have said,”oh wow that’s amazing, you are doing what it takes.” Instead they say, “No you aren’t committed.”

Honestly it’s insulting, cause look man, some of us can’t raise money at the drop of a hat. Some of our businesses, we aren’t trying to do exponential growth by being predatory through advertising or data collection or whatever shady ass means some “growth hacker” is trying to dream up. We are out there talking to customers every day, we are trying to create a value to our community, and create business value. That takes times. It’s not going to happen overnight.

I think there’s this myth of being a founder, that you go out, you raise money, you get on TechCrunch and everything’s great. But that’s not what happens.

It’s the rockiest, most difficult struggle.

I don’t want to put founders on a pedestal. I think anyone, whether you are working for yourself or someone else, there’s not one straight path to success.

But there’s a huge chasm between the realities of being a founder and surviving and living and what the press ready TechCrunch version of being a founder is.

I don’t get the luxury of making announcements that I’ve raised millions of dollars, for some idea that doesn’t even exist.

I have a real business, I have real customers, and it’s doing great. Yes, it could grow a 100x more than it currently it is, and it will get there.

But until that point happens, I gotta pay my bills. I don’t want to hide the fact that I have to pay my bills. I think if I’m taking on projects that help pay my bills, that should be celebrated, it should not be hidden.

There’s been articles out there, even from investors like YC or other places, that somehow if you aren’t 100% committed to this, you are less of a founder.

You know what, nobody is less of a founder. If you are working on your vision and you are building and doing whatever it takes to make it happen, that is great.

Whether you are able to raise money or not, it shouldn’t be a question about your commitment. Your commitment or your value is something only you can decide. No one else gets to decide that.

I think this is one of the biggest myths in the seedy underbelly of the growth at all costs, VC funded ethos lately. Especially among communities of color and people who aren’t 21 year old whiz kids and wear hoodies and went to Harvard.

We don’t all look like that. I’m 41 and people look at me as older, different. And even though all the data shows older founders are more successful, I know how exactly how people perceive me. I know that somehow I’m not thought of as a whiz kid.

What’s funny is, when I was 21 and got my first job in tech, I was seen as the whiz kid. I’ve seen both sides of this firsthand.

So whether it’s ageism or prejudice, racism or extremely privileged people having access to extremely privileged resources or the total possibility that my business isn’t even ready yet, my hustle is mine and mine alone to determine. I don’t want to make a claim that I’m fully VC ready when may not be. I probably can learn and grow, every business and founder can.

Whether I’m still in the learning phase or growth phase, me doing whatever I need to do make ends meet needs to celebrated. And everyone on their main hustle, side hustle, whatever needs to be celebrated. We cannot only value hustle when it comes from people that look traditionally like what Forbes magazine celebrates as hustle.

We use the word hustle to apply to a certain kind of hustle. But you aren’t hustling at the same level when you have raised $5+ million dollars and can do whatever you want. You are hustling when you are trying to make rent, you are hustling when you are trying to make your customers happy while paying your bills.

Every founder goes through this, and I bet there is thousands if not millions of people who can relate to this. Who have had this exact same experience and feel ashamed or belittled because they are trying to make ends meet and people question their commitment.

I don’t to be that anymore. I don’t want to hide behind the fact that yes, I’m going to do what it takes to build my business, I’m going to do what I need to survive and my hustle isn’t about how much money I’ve raised, my hustle is about my commitment to my project. My commitment doesn’t waiver just because I’m trying to earn money.

So if you are in this situation, take heart. The ethics of business and startups are changing. You have my support and I bet the support of many others as well. The more we are vocal about the real issues that founders face, the more we are honest about the real struggles we go through, the sooner we can all come together and support each other. I got choo.

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