The hustle is dumb and killing you
Hustle culture is toxic as all hell
The hustle is dumb, and it’s killing you. No, not literally. Well, maybe the #hustle IS killing you.
Because it was sure killing me.
As a new business owner, I did what every entrepreneur does.
I flung myself into my work, slammed the door, and lost the key.
I was working 14+ hour days trying to straddle several clients of various disciplines. It was driving me insane.
Just because I’m a human multi-tool that can do pretty much anything, it doesn’t mean I should.
And nor should you.
Industriousness doesn’t mean you should be working yourself to death. Employers should not be encouraging it, either. But they do, and it’s wrong.
The hustle is not a badge of honor. It’s a death sentence.
I hadn’t left the house in weeks. The Hustle was killing me. I had to make a change.
It’s unhealthy. It’s unhealthy to spend all your time obsessed with work. As a successful freelancer who has between 6 and 11 clients at any given time, I was more or less married to my keyboard.
No more. Never again.
We need to take a page from Sweden’s book and push for a 6 hour work day.
None of this 14 hour, grind-until-you-die, chase-the-money, bootstrap-your-life, live-lean-and-stay-hungry crap.
We’re not getting paid enough for it anyways, so why bust ass to meet someone else’s bottom-line?
The consequences of working until you drop are astronomical
I watched as a friend and fellow freelance worker drove themselves into the dirt and skipped sleep.
We were working on a project together. They were missing nearly every deadline. Their work suffered for it, for no reason.
Gary Vaynerchuk is fine telling everyone they can stay sane working from 9:00 pm to 3:00 am. Yeah right, Gary. (Correction: 6:00 pm to 3:00 am.)
You have employees and interns to do the heavy lifting.
I call bullshit.
It’s one thing to be productive. It’s another thing to kamikaze your way through your career so hard you forget to stop and smell the damned roses.
My partner had 5 days off recently. The phrase Retail Vacation Days is an oxymoron, but apparently it happened.
I spent most of it with my partner. Big projects aside, I cut down my working time to something more manageable: 6 hours per day. That’s it.
Do you want to know something fascinating?
The whole world didn’t end, I didn’t lose any money, my clients didn’t start a riot or try to burn my house down.
I took the much-needed time off for myself, my relationship, and cleaned my damned house.
His birthday is today. I’m going to spend most of it with him. Because life is really, really fucking short.
No one looks back on their life wishing they had worked harder, hustled more, and slept less.
They look back on their life wishing they had spent more time doing what they love, and spending time with their loved ones.
So drop the “hustle till you die” and “sleep is for the weak” crap.
It’s not impressive, it’s masochistic.
Kira Leigh is a snarky marketing nerd, writer, and artist.
See her work here and send her a message.
Or join her on Discord like the giant nerd you are: windows95toasteroven#3745
