“The secret lies in making manageable tweaks and placing small bets on pursuits that propel you from who you are today to the person you’re destined to become.”
In their new book Hustle, Neil Patel, Jonas Koffler, and Patrick Vlaskovits―three of the nation’s top entrepreneurs and consultants―inspire the readers to become more of a world-class doer. In their words, “If you’re stuck it will get you unstuck. If you’re bored, it will help you reinvent yourself. it’s for anyone who feels stuck in their search for work that better suits and rewards their talents.”
In a conversation with the authors- Neil Patel, Jonas Koffler, and Patrick Vlaskovits share insights on breaking free from the “Cycle of Suck” and inspire us to gain the momentum that leads to new opportunity, growth, and reinvention.
How can we break free of the rut in life and work that has become so pervasive?
Many of us who work in professional jobs and aspire to ascend the ladder of social mobility find ourselves stuck in unsatisfying work and a repetitive, cyclical form of learned helplessness, which we refer to as a “Cycle of Suck,” where we’re dispirited and incapable of taking any risk to move toward a goal. Moreover, we cannot help ourselves to break the cycle and every action we take only exacerbates our situation. Cycles of Suck are insidious because they subconsciously lower our expectations about what we can achieve and get out of life.
We don’t actually know what we’re good at; we haven’t explored our interests or learned where our talents and potential are best applied. It takes time and effort to find our calling, which we need to allow ourselves.
The way we can break free of this rut, this “Cycle of Suck”, is by breaking with our conformist routine and orienting toward a more innovative model of taking right-sized risk, staying open to change, and choosing small doses of pain, or that which we fear. Stepping into the unknown yields us untold benefits and a deep ocean of unseen opportunities.
Another issue is our fear of change, and our sense of “learned blindness,” a conditioned experience of tacitly accepting the rules of life and work and social conventions, as well as the recommendations of authority figures who dictate what we should and should not do or pursue.
How can we get out of a career slump and rediscover inspiration and fulfillment at work?
First, we must betray ourselves to stay true to ourselves. This means to let go of our old sense of self, our old identity and choose to reinvent or re-label ourselves. We do this by taking some risk, and choosing to view work and our careers as a privilege and an adventure. And by following The Fourfold Path, we encounter a more engaging path of advancement, skill and expertise building.
The Fourfold Path is a set of four fundamental career moves – each a distinct course of action of its own making – designed to liberate you and enable you to grow through new opportunities in your pursuits of work and career. Each of the four pathways works with a high degree of predictability and repeatability. And just like with obliquity, the path forward implies movement not in a straight line, but instead in an adventurous route that leads up, down, and sideways, ultimately pulling you from what you are to what you will become in your lifetime.
The Fourfold Path includes:
- The Outside/Inside Hustle – the proverbial ‘foot in the door’ of a new company or gig
- The Inside/Upside Hustle – promotion should you choose to ascend the corporate ladder
- The Inside/ Outside Hustle – movement from one organization to another or toward entrepreneurial endeavors
- The Outside/Upside Hustle – movement that accelerates toward large-scale and often epic entrepreneurial achievements
What are the first steps anyone can take to hustle starting tomorrow?
The first step is about heart, about doing something that moves you, energetically, emotionally, and so forth. It must put you in motion. It need not be your absolute passion. At the same time, we have to accept that we may not have clarity about what we want right now. That’s OK. You don’t need to know exactly what you want to do or why you want to do it. A vague notion is acceptable. All you need is a drive within to begin to shake up your life in even the smallest of ways. The movement itself will help set you free. The best thing anyone can do is start simple, and start by doing something that moves you, without judgment. Without overthinking it. And without trying to be perfect. Just try something new, something small—anything that disrupts your normal routine. Try a lot of small experiments, little tests that will lead to innovation, discovery, epiphany, material benefits of money and spiritual fulfillment that comes from making meaning.
You can use trial and error to suss out possibilities, whether it means buying a new wardrobe and seeing its affect on your friends, taking a new job or side gig and seeing its impact on your bank account, making just one more phone call or contact a day to drum up more opportunity, meeting new people at events and going to new environments, shifting your diet or exercise regimen, and shaking life up by trying a new approach entirely. You can keep a journal to track your results.
Hustle is about simplicity. It doesn’t have to be a massive undertaking. Do what works for you, be yourself, and don’t overthink the process.
“HUSTLE solves a deep, painful problem, which millions of us wake up to every day. We are not doing the work we should or could be doing; we have not discovered our talents or fulfilled even half of our true potential. Life IS short, and this book will serve all who aspire to create more opportunity, money, meaning and momentum.”
Hustle: The Power to Charge Your Life with Money, Meaning, and Momentum (Available on September 13, 2016)
Know more at: HustleGeneration.com