Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter

by Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson

What if you spent seven or eight hours a day working toward something without any distractions?

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passion stance is what separates the hustlers who win from the people who always seem stuck in place.

To be an effective hustler you must be able to identify what you want.

Without that clear vision, your hustle is never going to take you anywhere significant. It’s also important to accept that your vision can—no, make that should—change.

A lack of clarity about what people really want is what’s holding so many folks back. They don’t even know how to ask for what they want when they have an opportunity.

Even when you think you’ve been through it all, you’re going to find out there’s still more shit to go through.

you have to incorporate some activity into your lifestyle that allows you to disconnect from the noise of both the past and present and reconnect

with whatever you’re feeling in your gut in the moment.

You cannot construct a team and then expect everyone to instinctively know what position they’re supposed to play.

You can’t have a one-size-fits-all mind-set when it comes to effective leadership. You need to tailor a specific approach to every single person on your team in order to get the most out of them.

When you settle, you’re demonstrating a lack of confidence.

2 bucks Coca-Cola came and

Still, no matter what your situation is financially, if you really believe in something, I’d always recommend you go for the piece of equity over an up-front payday. When you ask for equity, you’re essentially betting on yourself.

with corporate governance.

Spending a few extra dollars at this stage, even if it hurts for a minute, can save you a ton of money down the road.

situation where a company is offering you a lower salary offset by stock options. Before you can determine whether that’s a good deal, you need to know the overall valuation of the company. If the company already put out an IPO (an initial stock offering), you can calculate its market value by multiplying the company’s stock price by the number of shares outstanding. If it hasn’t issued any stock yet, it’s going to be harder to figure out. You’re probably going to have to ask the founders what their method of determining the valuation of the company was. If they don’t want to tell you, or give you a vague answer that doesn’t make sense, then it’s probably not a deal that you want to pursue anyway. If you’re being offered stock, you need to know whether it is vested or not. Most stock options are vested, which means you have to stay with the company a certain amount of time before you can cash them in. If your option doesn’t vest for four years, you need to ask yourself if you’re comfortable staying with the company that long. If not, the equity might not be worth it. A lot of times people hear the terms “equity” or “stock options” and think they’ve hit the lottery. It is true that equity and stocks are one of the quickest ways to get a lot of money, but you just can’t walk into a start-up situation blindly. You have to educate yourself and ask a lot of difficult questions early in the process. That way, if the start-up you’re working for does become one of the rare ones th...

you have to place a premium value on how you spend the limited time you have.

Money is the goal, but oftentimes in order to get it, you have to retrain your brain to value experience.

Look around you. Everything changes. Everything on this earth is in a continuous state of evolving. . . . You were not put on this earth to remain stagnant. —STEVE MARABOLI

In every profession or field, the most successful people are always the ones who refuse to settle into the status quo, who don’t get satisfied and complacent once they achieve something, but always push toward the next goal or challenge. Conversely, people who get too comfortable or are unwilling to adapt are usually the ones who get left behind.

Scientists are starting to learn that the music we listen to as teenagers has a greater impact on us than music we might hear at any other point in our lives. Our brains are developing at their fastest pace between twelve and twenty-two, and it seems that whatever we listen to during that period tends to get embedded in our minds

forever.

you’re open to new experiences, willing to take chances, and curious about new topics, you’re young. Period.

On the other hand, if you’re set in your ways and aren’t interested in trying new things, or think you’ve already learned all there is to know, then you’re old. In fact, you’re dying.

I’m never going to cut myself off from new experiences.

Always challenge yourself to be around people who might be informed in different ways than you are, who have had different experiences, and, most important, aren’t intimidated to share that information with you. Those are the people who are going to supercharge your evolution into your best self.

The world will see you the way you see you. And treat you the way you treat yourself. —BEYONCÉ

Conversely, when I see someone who is consistently sloppy or doesn’t seem to mind wearing wrinkled clothes, it tells me that they don’t value themselves. That they’re not willing to put in a little extra work every day to present the best version of themselves. It doesn’t take much to iron your shirt or clean your sneakers a bit. If you don’t value your time and your appearance enough to do those little things every morning, why would I expect you to value me?

I’d rather know where a man stands and adjust accordingly than think I’m operating under a certain set of standards when I’m not.

It’s always better to empower the people around you to live their truth. When you force them to perpetuate a role, eventually people will see it.

As long as I’m always myself, no one can beat me at that.

As long as you’re comfortable walking your truth, no one will ever beat you at being you, either.

really believe that the better your opponent is, the better you become.

If you only compare yourself to inferior opponents, you’ll feel like you’re doing something when you’re really not doing much at all.

If you want to be a writer, you have to take notes on every author you read.

When you’re hustling at your hardest, you’re going to observe and engage with anything that gives you even the slightest advantage.

but a powerful exercise is physically writing a book on your competition. If someone in your

Writing those ideas down protects you against that idea getting lost. Once it’s on paper or your computer file, it’s there forever. Staring you back in the face whenever you look at it. Whether or not you act on it is still up to you, but at least you won’t forget it. Once you have it down on paper, you’re setting yourself up to make something valuable happen.

Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts. —NIKKI GIOVANNI

A lot of people have great ideas. Only a small percentage of them have the passion and work ethic to actually follow through and put it into motion.

How that person responds to their failure is going to determine the outcome of their journey.

Don’t let yourself have that reaction. Approach failures the same way that Honda did: as a tool that can help you get things right the next time.

Instead of worrying about “holding that L,” focus on “learning from that L” instead. Because your Ls are where your greatest

instructions will always be found.

It rarely feels like it in the moment, but experiencing setbacks, losses, and disappointments will absolutely ma...

When you accept that it’s all on you, only then can you finally be free to focus 100 percent on being the best version of yourself.

I cannot allow another person’s lack of success to start undermining my own.

You can only get true fulfillment and happiness from enjoying the achievement you made happen yourself.

create space for new energy to come into your life.