Hustle is in my DNA, sorry not sorry
My dad hustled, so I didn’t have to. It’s in his DNA and thus, likely mine. It’s all I saw my entire life, and I do mean entire.
This is my dad, on my mom’s 80th birthday in 96 degree weather. Yeah that is not a typo. NINETY SIX!
Here is the kicker, it wasn’t even OUR lawn he’s tending to. It was our neighbor’s, was that neighbor an elderly person unable to do it themselves and my dad was her savior? Nope. She had 50 bux — so he had time.
Now, I had made dinner, brought it over with some special champagne, for mom’s 80th, I brought the 2 kids over and he said hello and went back to edging the lawn.
Hey dad, I can pay you 50 bux to spend time with your grandkids and mom on her 80th, but it’s not just about the 50 bux, it’s about staying busy and productive.
This is the same father who said to me one day…
“If I come over your house to work on projects and you and I do it together it is free, if you have me come over to work on it and you are at work, 25 bux/hr.”
The man can’t sit still, he’s always had 2–3 side gigs. Even when he worked full time, he used the weekends to “play soldier” as he called it in the reserves after a 6 year stint in the air force, he played soldier until he was to old to serve.
He grew up on welfare in poverty, the military was his only way out of that situation, keep me busy, regimented, focused. You can not tell this man to take a break, even at 76 years old in 96 degree weather.
He lived around people who “took a break” a lot of them got wrapped up in bad things, drugs / alcohol, now they take a break ALL day drunk or fucked up.
He was on the front lines of poverty & because of his upbringing I’m one generation removed from that extreme poverty, I got to see it when I visited uncles — 1 of them died of overdose, other one lost his legs while being drunk walking in front of a moving car.
Don’t work…bad things happen. Work a 9am–5pm job, bad things happen from 5pm–10pm, don’t work on Sunday to “rest” — bad things happen. This is how my dad grew up.
This is in my DNA — don’t sit still for too long, don’t get lazy — bad things happen, you could end up like your uncles.
Now that I am a dad…I’m taking my Sunday’s to bring my kids to mom’s house to sing happy birthday, read her some books, and make some halibut. I’ll never work like that, but deep down inside I’m my dad’s son.
My dad hustled, so I have a choice to hustle or not.
This is why I don’t knock people who contribute to the culture around hustle, you never know where they come from. If my dad didn’t hustle, then we probably wouldn’t have gotten our first computer — we got it as a hand me down from a neighbor, I can’t help but wonder if he mowed a few lawns for free to get me that Commodore Vic-20, which lead to everything I have today. Thanks for the hustle pops.
