Are you a hustler, or a hard-worker? What’s the difference? Does it even matter? One thing for sure, we are all income-seekers. That’s why we wake up, brush our teeth, take a bath, have breakfast and dive into our income-seeking schemes (not scams).
According to a number of dictionary definitions of the word hustle, it literally comes down to jostling or pushing hard and fast. And it also means to earn money illegally. That’s the basic definition shared to bring home the meaning of this over-bastardised economic concept. Like it or not, every fourth or fifth person you know claims to be a hustler. What about you? Do you prefer to be called an executive? Or perhaps just a worker? Maybe you feel hard-worker suits you better. Well, it’s up to you. One highly educated Mpumalanga author I know once told me that I should rather be a hard-thinker instead of a hard-worker.
As lame as it sounds, especially coming from a motivational speaker with the Dr title, he made sense after giving me some poignant examples. “Are mine-workers not hard-workers? Are farm-workers not hard-workers? Are security guards not hard-workers?” he asked. I nodded in agreement, but I wasn’t really sure about security guards having to work hard. As if reading my mind, the good doctor shot back. “Look, I live in a very rich neighbourhood. I have security guards working at the gates day and night. Guarding someone’s gates is hard work. Imagine if your own child were to be made to stand at a gate for 12 hours for a measly salary per month. Isn’t that hard work? Would you allow your child to be subjected to such? Only adults qualify to do such a job because it’s no child’s play.
Trust me, my security guards are working hard guarding all my properties. That means their job is to ensure that I remain rich while they remain poor. It’s not nice to hear, but it’s true. That’s why I choose to think hard than to work hard.”
Each to his or her hustle
Indeed, I knew that being a security guard is not a hustle I wanted to participate in. I’m not even sure if that qualifies as a hustle. However, I know for sure that there are different reasons why we hustle. Some hustle to survive day-to-day expenses; others hustle to improve their lot in terms of affording rented clothes, a rented car, a rented house (in that order), rented friends and some rented lobola party. They hustle to afford the installments that help them appear like owners when they are in actual fact debtors. Then you have those who hustle to be owners. They push their own companies, own land and properties and definitely own vehicles.
These are the hustlers with a Capital H. Their hustle inspires most of the small-time hustlers while driving some to jealousy and envy. In all the different hustles that people push, you come across hustlers from different jostles of life. The list includes independent lawyers, doctors, engineers, publishers and pastors (selling more bottled water than a DJ pushing an energy drink). Some are tenderpreneurs in industries as big as construction, agriculture and energy. Then you have your catering and sound hustlers who are only happy to report to themselves as opposed to rotting their brains pushing a boring 9-5 in a hostile work environment. Indeed, kudos to those who enjoy their 9-5s.
The rest of us fall under the hustling profession, even if we occupy different tiers or categories. However, despite all the struggle and glamour involved, there are two questions that beg for answers. Today I want us to look at the first question, which is general in nature. How did being a hustler become so fashionable in an indigenous country like South Africa?
A long walk to “hustle”
Undoubtedly, hustling has become one of the biggest buzzwords in 21st Century South Africa. For black American youth, hustling was in fashion back in the 80s and the 90s, most especially with the rise of hip hop or gangsta rap as a commercial music genre. It was only after democracy became fully entrenched in our country that everyone started realising that they were on their own.
We started to understand that democracy is a land of opportunity as opposed to a welfare system where everyone gets everything for mahala. That’s where South Africans, especially the youth, started to adopt the word hustle into our mainstream vocabulary. Today, when you say you are a “Hustler” you are bound to impress a number of people, or offend those with a big appetite for political correctness.
Adopting the “hustle”
Personally, I have had a love-hate relationship with the word hustle. At first, I loved it because it represented two things that any teenager from an upmarket residential area loved back in the 90s: hip hop and porn. Back then hip hop music was marinated with the gun slinging culture and hustling mindset such that the two could not be separated. Of course, most of the hustle referred to in gangsta rap had everything to do with illegally obtaining money, even if it meant sticking up your own relatives at some liquor shop around the block. Then you had Larry Flynt’s brainchild, Hustler Magazine. It was the best publication to own at the time, given our curious minds. Be re le stout blind. The magazine stayed stashed under our mattresses and kept us engaged in a lot of self-loving sexual acts that we claim to hate today. So, every time the word hustle was thrown around it invoked images of gangsta rap and imaginary sex. That’s why the 90s youth loved the word hustle with a penchant.
Losing the “hustle”
Things changed when we started learning about words and their real meaning – or alternative interpretations. This was after the Y2K scare and the 9/11 aftermath, as well as the subsequent global terrorist watch under George W. Bush. Revolting American rappers who felt the US was trying to out-hustle every country in the world made headlines, putting fire on the fuel of the hustler’s music, hip hop, which was spreading from as far as New York to as deep as Saselani Village. Surreptitiously so, young hustlers started cropping from every kasi, informal settlements and traditional council. Later in the first decade of the 2000s, the word hustle had already gained popularity in Mzansi, especially when local hip hop caught the mainstream and started competing with a huge genre like House music. To this day, local hip hop is among the suspects being sought for interrogation in connection with Kwaito’s premature death. Some conspiracy theorists still claim that Kwaito actually faked its own death and framed turn-up, kwai-hop and kwai-house. Who knows? Perhaps there is some truth in this street corner gossip, but that’s besides the point. The fact is that with hip hop becoming a household homebrewed genre in South Africa, especially for those who know how to make
To this day, local hip hop is among the suspects being sought for interrogation in connection with Kwaito‘s premature death. Some conspiracy theorists still claim that Kwaito actually faked its own death and framed turn-up, kwai-hop and kwai-house. Who knows? Perhaps there is some truth in this street corner gossip, but that’s besides the point. The fact is that with hip hop becoming a household homebrewed genre in South Africa, especially for those who know how to make venac not to sound whack, every young person susceptible to peer pressure developed ambitions to become a hustler, or at least be known as one. That’s why we have so many hustlers and a few concerned citizens who hate the word. The reason is simple. For anyone with a sensitive moral outlook on life, calling yourself a hustler is tantamount to calling yourself a prostitute, or pimp. That’s why we have two camps on the matter. The members of the Hustler Camp and members of the Non-Hustler Camp. Members of the one camp feel energised whenever they are referred to as hustlers while the members of the other camp cringe in frustration at our ignorance. This happened to me. I went from one camp to the other and then back to the first camp after coming face-to-face with reality. The truth is that I realised that whether I like it or not I’m a hustler. I am jostling and pushing to get paid. I’m breaking down doors because I have grown tired of waiting for a breakthrough. For as long as I will have to fight to get business and to be paid for my products and services I will gladly call myself a hustler with a small letter h. That’s until I graduate to the bigger league and become a Don of the Hustle. Until then, I’m not going back to the moralistic brigade who embrace reality but reject its labels. They are the same as people who enjoy sleeping around but hate any sex topic that is raised. It’s time those who are driven to succeed change their gears from fantasy to reality. If making money is still a shove, a push and a pull, you are definitely a hustle. The most important favour you should do for yourself is to find out why you hustle. What is the reason behind your hustle? Don’t scratch your head too much. We will deal with this question in the upcoming blog post, which will be our last on the topic. In the meantime, ask yourself why you hustle. What’s your motivation and inspiration? Are they enough to turn you into a hustler of note? Yes, we all seek income, but what’s your reason for seeking it at the level that you seek it? Thank you for your time. After all is said and done, Bushbuckridge we put the whole planet under siege.
This happened to me. I went from one camp to the other and then back to the first camp after coming face-to-face with reality. The truth is that I realised that whether I like it or not I’m a hustler. I am jostling and pushing to get paid. I’m breaking down doors because I have grown tired of waiting for a breakthrough. For as long as I will have to fight to get business and to be paid for my products and services I will gladly call myself a hustler with a small letter h. That’s until I graduate to the bigger league and become a Don of the Hustle. Until then, I’m not going back to the moralistic brigade who embrace reality but reject its labels. They are the same as people who enjoy sleeping around but hate any sex topic that is raised. It’s time those who are driven to succeed change their gears from fantasy to reality. If making money is still a shove, a push and a pull, you are definitely a hustle. The most important favour you should do for yourself is to find out why you hustle. What is the reason behind your hustle? Don’t scratch your head too much. We will deal with this question in the upcoming blog post, which will be our last on the topic. In the meantime, ask yourself why you hustle. What’s your motivation and inspiration? Are they enough to turn you into a hustler of note? Yes, we all seek income, but what’s your reason for seeking it at the level that you seek it? Thank you for your time. After all is said and done, Bushbuckridge we put the whole planet under siege.
That’s why we have so many hustlers and a few concerned citizens who hate the word. The reason is simple. For anyone with a sensitive moral outlook on life, calling yourself a hustler is tantamount to calling yourself a prostitute, or pimp. That’s why we have two camps on the matter. The members of the Hustler Camp and members of the Non-Hustler Camp. Members of the one camp feel energised whenever they are referred to as hustlers while the members of the other camp cringe in frustration at our ignorance. This happened to me. I went from one camp to the other and then back to the first camp after coming face-to-face with reality. The truth is that I realised that whether I like it or not I’m a hustler. I am jostling and pushing to get paid. I’m breaking down doors because I have grown tired of waiting for a breakthrough. For as long as I will have to fight to get business and to be paid for my products and services I will gladly call myself a hustler with a small letter h. That’s until I graduate to the bigger league and become a Don of the Hustle. Until then, I’m not going back to the moralistic brigade who embrace reality but reject its labels. They are the same as people who enjoy sleeping around but hate any sex topic that is raised. It’s time those who are driven to succeed change their gears from fantasy to reality. If making money is still a shove, a push and a pull, you are definitely a hustle. The most important favour you should do for yourself is to find out why you hustle. What is the reason behind your hustle? Don’t scratch your head too much. We will deal with this question in the upcoming blog post, which will be our last on the topic. In the meantime, ask yourself why you hustle. What’s your motivation and inspiration? Are they enough to turn you into a hustler of note? Yes, we all seek income, but what’s your reason for seeking it at the level that you seek it? Thank you for your time. After all is said and done, Bushbuckridge we put the whole planet under siege.
That’s why we have so many hustlers and a few concerned citizens who hate the word. The reason is simple. For anyone with a sensitive moral outlook on life, calling yourself a hustler is tantamount to calling yourself a prostitute, or pimp. That’s why we have two camps on the matter. The members of the Hustler Camp and members of the Non-Hustler Camp. Members of the one camp feel energised whenever they are referred to as hustlers while the members of the other camp cringe in frustration at our ignorance. This happened to me. I went from one camp to the other and then back to the first camp after coming face-to-face with reality. The truth is that I realised that whether I like it or not I’m a hustler. I am jostling and pushing to get paid. I’m breaking down doors because I have grown tired of waiting for a breakthrough. For as long as I will have to fight to get business and to be paid for my products and services I will gladly call myself a hustler with a small letter h. That’s until I graduate to the bigger league and become a Don of the Hustle. Until then, I’m not going back to the moralistic brigade who embrace reality but reject its labels. They are the same as people who enjoy sleeping around but hate any sex topic that is raised. It’s time those who are driven to succeed change their gears from fantasy to reality. If making money is still a shove, a push and a pull, you are definitely a hustle. The most important favour you should do for yourself is to find out why you hustle. What is the reason behind your hustle? Don’t scratch your head too much. We will deal with this question in the upcoming blog post, which will be our last on the topic. In the meantime, ask yourself why you hustle. What’s your motivation and inspiration? Are they enough to turn you into a hustler of note? Yes, we all seek income, but what’s your reason for seeking it at the level that you seek it? Thank you for your time. After all is said and done, Bushbuckridge we put the whole planet under siege.
#2017WeMeanBusiness
