A Hustler is constantly evaluating their surroundings and the resources available to them. I have said before that if all you have is time, use that time to advance your hustle. I lived in a housing project near some agricultural drainage ditches. People would go down there to catch crawdads to make soup and other foods and then sell what they could make (even just sell the live crawdads at the flea market). I used to collect cans and bottles that people threw away to gather up some money. Whatever it is that surrounds you, take a look at it and figure out who doesn’t have it. Farrah Gray took rocks and sold them as door stops. He took extra lotions from around his house and mixed them together and sold them for extra money. Farrah Gray is a Hustler.
One thing that is pretty much available to anyone in the United States is Internet access. Coffee shops, libraries, Internet cafes, schools are all potential sources of computers with cheap or free internet access.
Now, you might not be able to charge folks to use these free computers (but if you can, I might have a job for you because that would mean you are on top of your sales hustle). Anyway, so you now have this incredible resource. Every day, people like you are making a few dollars to a few thousand dollars using the Internet. I have. I was making a few hundred dollars a month on eBay about 8 years ago spending about 4 hours a month posting items and mailing them out. I didn’t do anything special. I could probably start it up again if I wanted too, but it was boring. I make better money now doing things that are more fun for me – and isn’t that the real hustle? Continue reading ‘Web sites to help you get your hustle going.’
I remember the first time I heard the story about stone soup. I was about 8 years old and it was a muppet story or something like that for kids on television. Even then I understood what was going on in the story. The two main characters used the only resources they had, their street smarts, to come up and get fed. For those who don’t know, here is the story:
Two travelers come to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty pot. Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the hungry travelers. The travelers fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire in the village square. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing. The travelers answer that they are making “stone soup”, which tastes wonderful, although it still needs a little bit of garnish to improve the flavor, which they are missing. The villager doesn’t mind parting with just a little bit to help them out, so it gets added to the soup. Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travelers again mention their stone soup which hasn’t reached its full potential yet. The villager hands them a little bit of seasoning to help them out. More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient. Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all. Continue reading ‘Financing your business using the Stone Soup Strategy’
I get emails, phone calls and questions all the time from people trying to find their own “Hustle”.
How do you find a hustle?
What is the right hustle for me?
How do I know the right hustle when I find it?
First, let me define what a hustle is for all of our non-American visitors. A hustle is a culmination of a goal and a vehicle to create personal wealth. A hustle isn’t simply a job, or having something to sell. It is having all the parts to make your business successful. It is the distribution, the marketing, the legal, the suppliers etc etc. A hustle, by all definitions, is a complete business opporunity with a plan for success.
Make sense? Cool, now let’s rock it out.
Continue reading ‘If it aint broken, it’s because you aint looking hard enough.’
I walked into a room not to long ago and overheard someone talking about me. “He is soooo lucky…”
Damn. I know I have been blessed. But for all the work I have put in, I was a little pissed to have my hard work be dismissed so easily as “Luck”. Then I had to get my head straight - it was just another self defeating hater.
See, what this person didn’t know was that you have to prepare to be lucky. My dad used to tell me “You better have your sh*t together before you start”. He would say this before I attempted anything I wanted to do. Even before getting married. He was right.
What he was saying is that you need to make sure you have your game lined up. You want to be rich? Start by eliminating waste. Once you eliminate waste - and for those who don’t know, waste is spending your money on anything you don’t NEED. You don’t need that Mocha in the morning. You don’t need that cigarette. You don’t need that drink. You don’t need that purse. You don’t need those rims.
But we are talking about budgeting and I will get into that in another post. What we are talking about now is preparation for success. Continue reading ‘You have to prepare to be lucky’
Today sucked.
This is what I got done:
- Made my car payment (15 minutes driving)
- Deposited some checks (15 minutes driving)
- Got my hair cut (45 minutes driving and cut total)
- Checked my email and worked on a cold calling script (1 hour)
That’s it. I spent the rest of the day goofing off on a WORK day. What the hell was I thinking?
I wasted a whole day. I didn’t even intentionally start out intending to do this. If I had, I would
have gone and worked on my golf swing, or spent time with my family. Maybe I would have
snuck out and saw movie.
Continue reading ‘Get off your ass and do something - Procrastination 101′
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