What Samwell Tarly teaches us about hustle?

Abhinav Khanal
Jul 30, 2017 · 3 min read
SEASON 7 SPOILERS!

I like to call myself an amateur hustler because I am making an effort not to ‘CEO-fy’ myself just because I co-founded a startup in my early 20’s. As an amateur in the world of entrepreneurship, I enjoy learning from examples that are relatable for younger generations of entrepreneurs like myself (people who have started but not ‘made it’, yet). Samwell Tarly presented a couple of unlikely lessons in the first two episodes of the 7th Season (GOT).

In the first episode, Tarly teaches us the importance of doing the disgusting work day in and out when starting a venture. Many of us struggle with the lack of patience and a desire for easy gratification. However, the work of picking up s***, cleaning up the dirt, washing dishes, and doing mundane tasks for prolonged periods of time is crucial in building character and discipline. On his journey to become a Grand Maester, Tarly starts his journey from the bottom but knows that such tasks will build him up to become a strong intellectual leader in the future. Ideally, he wouldn’t have to do such unhygienic tasks, yet there is something powerful about those few minutes when he does the same thing every day that reminds me of the times when we, as entrepreneurs have to do the mundane tasks of sending cold emails, following up with customers, searching for mentors, seeking funding, etc. These tasks aren’t always pretty, but can build a solid base for the future of our ventures and our personality as entrepreneurs.

In the second episode, Tarly teaches us the importance of standing up against the status-quo. Although he is told by Archmaester Ebrose, a pro in his own field, to forget the case of Ser Jorah and that he is not curable. Tarly, instead of listening to the status-quo, decides to take the road less traveled, and decides to break the hierarchy to directly work on Ser Jorah with an alternative solution. He looks through research independently and discovers a solution that might actually work and might have been ignored by the veterans. This reminds me of the legendary stories of entrepreneurs who were not happy with the status-quo and decided to create an alternative solution to solve the world’s greatest challenges. It is important to listen to experts in the fields that we hope to work in, but sometimes, we need to carve our own paths. Mentors are excellent figures that can guide our path in the starting days, but it is also important to stop listening, and start executing the crazy ideas.

I’m not sure if George R.R Martin had any entrepreneurial influence when writing these books, but it definitely seems to teach a lot of key hard and soft skills for entrepreneurs. Can you think of other hustle lessons taught in Game of Thrones?

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On a journey towards 10,000 hours of writing so most of my pieces are rough ideas that I hope to polish over the years.

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