Hustle culture gets dunked on a lot these days. Some of that is deserved. Glorifying 4 a.m. wake-ups, bragging about never taking a day off, and treating burnout like a badge of honour is dumb as hell. But here’s my unpopular take: hustle culture is half right. And the half it gets right is the half most of its critics conveniently ignore.
I’ve lived on both sides of this. I’ve worked jobs where I coasted. I’ve built a business where I outworked everyone I knew. Here’s what I’ve kept from hustle culture, what I’ve thrown out, and what I think actually builds a business that lasts.
What Hustle Culture Gets Right
Nobody Is Coming to Save You
This is the core truth of hustle culture, and I think it’s dead on. If you want something different for your life, you have to build it. No boss, no government program, no lucky break is going to hand it to you. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you start moving.
Work Ethic Still Matters
Talent is overrated. Effort isn’t. In the early years of any business, you will have to outwork the problem. There’s no clever shortcut around building a client base from zero. I filmed a ridiculous number of videos to get All In Content where it is. Over 15,000 of them. That doesn’t happen without a lot of hours.
Volume Beats Perfection
Hustle culture pushes action over overthinking, and that’s right. People who ship a lot, post a lot, and try a lot learn faster than people who polish one thing forever.
Comfort Is the Enemy
I say it all the time: you’re not stuck, you’re comfortable. Hustle culture’s best message is a kick in the ass to anyone using comfort as an excuse.
I needed that kick for years. I sat in comfortable jobs, miserable but paid, telling myself the timing would get better. If someone had grabbed me and said "get to work on your own thing, tonight," it might have saved me a lot of time. That’s the part of hustle culture I’ll always defend. It gets people moving.
What Hustle Culture Gets Wrong
Hours Aren’t the Same as Progress
Working 80 hours a week on the wrong things is worse than working 40 on the right ones. Hustle culture often celebrates being busy instead of being effective. Busy is easy. Effective is hard.
Sleep and Health Aren’t Optional
I learned this one painfully at the World Series of Poker. I skipped sleep, ate badly, and let my discipline slide, and my decisions fell apart. Business works the same way. A tired, burnt-out operator makes worse calls. Bragging about running on four hours of sleep is bragging about making worse decisions.
Copying Billionaire Routines Is Pointless
You don’t need a cold plunge, a 5 a.m. club, and a 14-step morning routine to build a business. Those things might work for some people. They’re not the reason anyone succeeds. Results come from doing the boring, important work consistently.
Not Every Season Is a Sprint
There are times when you need to push hard. A launch, a big opportunity, a rough patch. But if every season is a sprint, you’ll eventually crash. Sustainable effort beats heroic effort over a long career.
I’ve had stretches where I did every single part of the business myself: ideas, recording, editing, scheduling, client calls. For a while, it felt heroic. Then it felt exhausting. Eventually it felt dangerous, because when you’re the only one holding everything up, one bad week can knock the whole thing over. Hustle can get a business started. Systems are what keep it alive.
Where Hustle Culture Leaves Out Relationships
This one doesn’t get talked about enough. When you’re grinding constantly, relationships take the hit. Family, friends, the people who were there before the business. Hustle culture rarely mentions what it costs the people around you.
I’m not going to pretend I’ve nailed this. I haven’t. But I’ve learned that a business built by burning every relationship around you isn’t much of a win.
My Version: Focused Effort Instead of Hustle Culture
Here’s what I’ve landed on after years of getting this wrong in both directions.
- Work hard, especially early. There’s no substitute.
- Work on the right things. Ask often whether your busy work is actually moving the business.
- Batch the work. I record dozens of videos in one sitting so I’m not grinding every single day.
- Protect sleep and health like they’re business assets, because they are.
- Push hard in short seasons, then recover deliberately.
- Measure results, not hours.
None of this is complicated. The hard part is sticking to it when you feel behind and every instinct tells you to just work more. That’s usually the exact moment to step back and ask whether more hours will actually fix the problem, or whether you need a better plan.
I’ve learned to treat my energy like a budget. Some weeks I spend a lot of it, and that’s fine. But I plan the recovery too, the same way I’d plan cash flow after a big expense.
Why Batching Beat the Hustle for Me
One of the biggest shifts in how I work came from batching. Instead of hustling to produce content every day, I record a large number of videos in one focused session. Then the editing and posting happen in the background while I do other work.
It’s the opposite of the hustle mentality. Fewer, more focused bursts of effort instead of constant grinding. And it produces far more than daily grinding ever did. That’s the lesson: effort matters, but structure matters more.
Is Hustle Culture Good or Bad?
Both. It’s good when it pushes people out of comfort and into action. It’s bad when it turns into an excuse for working stupid, burning out, and ignoring the people who matter.
Take the fire. Leave the nonsense.
And don’t let anyone shame you for resting.
If you’re early in your journey, lean into the work. Put in the hours. Do the uncomfortable things nobody else wants to do. Just be smart about it. Know what you’re working toward, protect the basics, and build systems so the business doesn’t depend on you grinding forever. The goal isn’t to hustle for the rest of your life. The goal is to hustle long enough to build something that doesn’t need you to.
FAQ: Hustle Culture
Is it possible to build a business without hustling?
Not really, at least not early on. Building something from nothing takes serious effort. The goal is effort that’s focused and sustainable, not effort for its own sake.
How do I avoid burnout while building a business?
Protect sleep and health, work in focused bursts, batch similar tasks, and take real breaks after big pushes.
Should I work every weekend?
Sometimes, in a crunch. If it’s every weekend, forever, something in your systems or priorities needs fixing.
Want a Real Conversation About Work and Ambition?
This is the kind of topic I love digging into with audiences and podcast hosts, without the hype. See my speaking topics, or if you’re trying to find your own balance as you build, learn about coaching with me.
