It’s Time to Fix the “Hustle” Culture

Over the past few years, I have read countless articles from entrepreneurs and startups about just how hard they are working day in and day out.

Every day it’s something different.

One day, someone is gloating about how many emails they sent. Another day, they are exclaiming that they fit in over twenty meetings in an eight hour period. A few days later, how they have not slept for an entire week, been living off of coffee, talking as if they have climbed Mount Everest.

Let’s get real here, to me, this means absolutely nothing. I do not care about how hard you are working. If you are sharing this as content to others, to me, it says that you have no proven track record, that you have no successes, and the only thing you can be proud of is the output you’re creating which has brought you no success.

Think on that for a minute.

This isn’t meant to sound harsh, but instead, to get everyone reading this to start thinking differently. Working smart is obviously the way people preach about doing anything — entrepreneurship, developing, designing, creating, planning, thinking, performing, competition, etc. Hell, I personally pride myself on being someone who can work as hard as physically possible while at the same time, working as smart as possible. With that said, one thing, and only one thing matters, the results you have. What have you accomplished? Who have you impacted? How much revenue have you generated? What kind of difference have you made? These are the things that you should be sharing with the world, not the process.

I love sports, and in this scenario, using sports is a great analogy for the readers of this blog. You don’t hear athletes jumping up and down about how much practiced they fit in, how they practiced harder than everyone else on their team, in their sport. Hell no. You hear them joyously (and sometimes dejectedly), sharing their results on the field, on the ice, on the court, etc. You already get the idea. It is the game that matters to them. Preparation for the game means nothing.

Here is why “Hustle” Culture is flawed and broken. It provides audiences of these blogs, and these content sources, the false idea that it is your work input is all that matters. Again, I am not here to say this amazingly huge asset isn’t vital — but it causes the misconception that the output automatically will happen, or worse, that it isn’t the thing people care about. Let’s be real. If Chop Dawg had no portfolio, hadn’t worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs, didn’t have a following, didn’t have constant opportunities — all of you reading this right now would not care about us at all or pay attention to the information in this blog. We have a track record, and that is what brings validation.

I want to challenge your thinking here as you move forward. Focus on sharing your successes. Share your defeats. Share the knowledge you have learned. Don’t be afraid to share how you have worked to make your routine better. Don’t even be afraid to share what you are doing and working on — I still do that too. However, do not put all of your eggs in the work input basket. Focus on sharing everything that happens because of your work. The goals and accomplishments you have set out to achieve. The businesses you are determined to build. The products you have set out to create. Talk about what you have done — the good, the bad, the ugly. Be real. These are the things that the “Hustle” Culture has taken away from the entrepreneurial world and something we need to bring back.

About Joshua Davidson: I build products and grow companies. Founder of ChopDawg.com. Co-host of The Pawdcast. Featured on FOX, MSNBC, CBS, Technically, and Mashable. Email me at Joshua@ChopDawg.com.