Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
I created this post last year. Going through my old notes, I found it and decided to share it again.
This one is for authors, writers, service providers, freelancers, coaches, consultants, speakers, trainers, information marketers and the general thought leadership spectrum.
Many times, what we call a career or a “business of helping others” is actually not a business but a hustle.
What’s the difference between a business and a hustle?
With a business, you know the income that comes into your account by the end of the month, even before the month begins.
You may not have an exact figure as a salary earner does, but you have a benchmark each month that you can never fall below.
For example, your benchmark may be that you never earn below five hundred thousand naira each month. You may do more as your business grows, but you can never do less.
On the other hand, with a hustle, you are constantly working hard to find ways to earn an income each month so you can meet your needs. Your income is all over the place! You rely on one sales tip or trick or the other, and you’re neither here nor there.
You can have a good month this October (maybe because you launched a new book at a discounted price) and then have barely nothing next month. You then find yourself having to launch every single month just so you don’t go severely broke. You still end up broke anyway.
You try to churn out new books and courses as often as you can, so you can make money, and end up creating low quality products that wouldn’t even pass for a lead magnet. Your launches lack strategy or even direction.
Being a “hustler” is hard work. It is stressful, an unreliable means of income, an impossible model to grow and scale and you always find yourself with more days of the month than you have money to survive them.
Being a hustler can be career ending. You may find yourself doing something you love, but because you don’t earn enough to “justify” your efforts, you get frustrated, take a break to either figure out your path or find a new one. When you eventually come back, someone new has taken your spot.
I used to be a hustler, till I decided to take my career seriously.
I learned to sit down and evaluate the entirety of my business.
I changed my mindset towards what my business meant to me. Sense fell on me and I sought help.
I set goals one year, two years, five years and ten years into the future, reverse-engineered the whole process and patiently began to build.
I learned to stop worrying about how to pay my bills and started learning about how to consolidate what I had.
I learned to stop worrying about my immediate income and learned to become more intentional about creating a business model that worked for me.
I learned to stop worrying about where and how to find new customers and decided instead to give value.
Most of all, I stopped creating PRODUCTS and started creating CONTENT.
What I did with the content I created was what changed everything for me, and once you get this formula and apply it to your own business, you will also exit the hustle life and enter a career path you love, that loves you in return.
VC.
