Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter

by Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson

I expected him to blow them away, but when those executives started asking questions and spitballing ideas, he just sat on his hands. Didn’t make a peep. You would have thought he was just a buddy of mine along for the ride, instead of what he was, which was the one true expert in the room. At first I couldn’t understand what he was doing (or not doing). Then it dawned on me: He’s afraid. He’s scared to raise his hand because he doesn’t want to give the wrong answer. He’d put in the work, but in the presence of those executives’ self-assurance, he lost faith in himself. And that meant the executives never noticed him. Never made a mental note that he was a guy to keep an eye on. Never offered him the platform he was looking for—and deserved. Instead, he stayed stuck in place. It was a pretty good place, one that a lot of other folks would have liked to reach, but not where he aspired to. He was stuck at a level that wasn’t equal to his skill.