The True Competitive Edge for Founders.
Hint: It is NOT Hustle.
Hustle does not mean the same thing as HUNGER. Give me a founder who shows hunger and that is someone I can build with. Hustle, on the other hand, has been the very theme of so many burnout stories that I hear from clients coming to coaching wanting to change their approach to building their business. Many of them are wanting to move away from their daily life feeling like a hustle, to feeling more at peace and aligned with how they invest their time and energy. Its possible to produce even better results in that space, and it is time we talk more about it.
Have you ever heard the phrase “Respect the hustle.” I am sure the intention behind it is great, and I will be the first to admit that it’s catchy. I can respect anyone who is putting in the work and doing whatever it takes to succeed. But in a large group of hardworking individuals who are striving to win the game of entrepreneurship, this mantra can become dangerous. The drive inside many will have them try to out-hustle their perceived competition. It may have them try to out-hustle neighbors, out-hustle their limiting beliefs instead of choosing the more empowering beliefs, or in some ways out-hustle a certain perception they are desperately trying to manage. I’ve watched the HUSTLE just be about HUSTLE and not about outcomes, and in many cases, I’ve watched people HUSTLE to a grinding HALT.
“The hustle” and hard work aren’t the same things. You can hustle and be very busy moving things around and not getting anything done. Often the energy that one needs to feel like they are hustling is so intense that keeping up the very idea of hustle is draining away what would otherwise be producing energy. My admonition is that we stop using the term HUSTLE as a badge of honor.
If Covid has taught us anything, it’s that a bit of downtime is not a bad thing. Often you hear people finding gratitude for the time with their families, for things in the world slowing down for a bit. Even organizations that experienced amazing growth during the last year took some time to reposition and think. In my observations as a coach, what I witnessed was far more like a “sprint and recover” than a hustle. The sprint was prepared for, and very intentional, and in almost all cases was followed by a recovery period. The design of a recovery period meant that everyone acknowledged the energy needed for the sprint, and had an end in sight that they could design to fill their tank back up.
As a founder, are you recovering enough? Are you allowing your team to have the recovery they need after a long sprint? Or do they more often than not cross a finish line and win a sprint for you, only to hear the gunfire immediately sending them off on the next sprint? Trying to make an effective sprinter into a long-distance runner is a recipe for disaster. The role of a founder is to calibrate the energy of the team, and then pace and lead them to victory — not leading from the front, sides, or rear… but from within.
I was 14 years old when I attended my very first Tony Robbins seminar. It was called “The Competitive Edge” (formerly Strategic Influence). Tony was mesmerizing and the audience was on fire. There may have been 300–400 people in attendance and while I only recall a few pieces making sense to me at the time, those things were valuable to me as I built numerous businesses over the last few decades. Tony closed the event with what I feel is the competitive edge for any entrepreneur or founder today:
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” — Calvin Coolidge 30th President of the United States.
Hustle is great — but without some recovery, and the patience to allow it in, you can and likely will burn out. Hustle without determination is short-lived. Resilience grows from the determination to see things through, to solve the problem, and to stick in the long term. We do not speak enough on the expectations that many entrepreneurs have around their next idea being an “overnight success”. Most companies that seem like overnight successes showed determination and patience in their first seven to ten years. By exercising patience you can prevent yourself from running too fast, as speed is often the very thing that can kill a business. When you are running too fast you are missing critical details — and what you do not see is ultimately what will cost you in business.
I once saw a meme that captured my attention around this concept of hustle. While I believe that hard work is critical, I am also an advocate for meaningful rest. Rest makes space outside your normal work cadence for the creativity required to solve challenging problems. I believe what Tony told me when I saw him at the young age of 14: we expect far too much of ourselves in a day, and greatly underestimate what we can accomplish in a decade. It is far more valuable to align with who you are, your nature, and your outcomes, than it is to hustle for the sake of hustling. If you feel like you need to catch your breath — stop and do that. With sprint must come recovery. So sprinkle a little patience on your persistence: you will find more joy on each step of your journey and be more likely to reach your destination.
Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and agriculture.
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