To Hustle or Not to Hustle
That is the answer…
House of Cards season 2 was released less than a week ago, and I have already binged through the season. It’s great…well the fact that I’ve already finished the entire series isn’t that great (it’s pretty ridiculous actually), but the show itself is awesome. I love it. I love how the producers keep me wanting more. Whats more, I am more than mildly enthralled with Frank Underwood as a character. Albeit extreme in most cases, Frank always has some plan he is working on, or something he is creating. There are no wasted days, hours, minutes, seconds. I really enjoy that about his character.
This has been something I have certainly tried to emulate in my own life, and I am pleased to say, as of late I feel like I have succeeded in that attempt. I am writing to you now at 1am. Not because I work better at night or anything like that, no, I am writing to you at this hour because it is the first time today (2/20) that I have been able have some time to myself…and I effing love it.
Having little to no free time until 1a at night means I am hustling, and if I am hustling I am being active towards achieving my goals, and that’s what life is about to me.
Today I had the pleasure of working on my startup, Freshsessions. I recorded what will be part one of a radio segment about the state of African -Americans in technology on 106.1 KMEL, met with the Mayor of Oakland, Jean Quan, and witnessed the signing of a proclamation to make February 20th, Inspire Oakland Day in the City of Oakland. It was pretty amazing, and extremely galvanizing.
The best part about today’s happenings, was by far that I was with my friends from Oakland Digital for the radio piece, as well as the signing of the proclamation. Furthermore, the best part of being with the ODALC team, was that they brought along Kamantai (he’s the gentleman to the far right with the knit hat), who is a teenager (and current community manager intern for ODALC), who grew up in Oakland and is an aspiring recording artist, producer, and all around artist.
Artists recognize artists. We think different, therefore, we talk different, therefore, we are different.
Kamantai was in charge of taking video and photos of us at KMEL, and during the signing of the proclamation today. The kicker is…he first picked up a DSLR a couple of days (three to be exact) ago. After hearing that, I was instantly taken back to my own experience of first getting the hang of my DSLR. I’ll never forget it. For someone how good vision and an eye for photo composition, as Kamantai does, having a digital camera in your hands feels really special. I without a doubt felt that energy, and it was refreshing to be around that level of curiosity and eagerness to create.
To hustle is to act. Hustling doesn’t have to be exclusive to experiencing a big meeting, event, or series of events. It is the little things as well. The learning of new skills, the reading of new books, the writing of new blog posts to share your experiences. Whether we are hustling in a way that gets us closer to our goals, or further away from them, we are still hustling. My goal is to minimize the instances in my life where I am hustling backwards, and I believe I accomplished that today. If I can actively do this and expose my experience in doing so, hopefully my community can use those experiences as learnings, and we can collectively minimize actions that make us hustle backwards.
