November 15, 2024
Wondering when the hustle ends? Remember that patience pays. It may even take a decade.
In college, I took a job with a startup dedicated to investment jobs on the web. This was 1999, before that became normal. Money was tight, but space was tighter.
I made thousands of cold calls. Most didn’t make it past hello. The good ones went five minutes.
Great ones? 30 minutes!
I treated that startup like it was my own.
When Times Get Tough
Then things got tough. With a shaking voice, the founder told us he had to delay payroll.
I kept dialing.
Then the payroll went from late to nonexistent. I stopped dialing.
When the dot-com bubble burst, it took this startup with it. I blamed the founder for the months of back pay that never made it to my account.
But I remained calm on the outside because I wasn’t just there for the paycheck.
The experience got me an internship at a hedge fund (my dream at the time).
The Unexpected Payoff
10 years later, I founded my own startup and bumped into THAT founder on the street.
The small talk didn’t last long before I mentioned my own project. He complimented my early work and walked me into the office of an investor.
I ended up landing one of the biggest supporters of my young business.
The Decade-Long Return on Investment
The payoff—a decade later.
It felt like pure luck, but I had earned his respect with every number I dialed. Since I didn’t burn the bridge, it was still standing after all those years. So I walked across.
The grind felt thankless back then, but he noticed and paid it forward.
Redefining Success in the Hustle
When you hustle, the payoff isn’t certain. It can look different than you imagined.
I missed a couple of paychecks, but I gained:
- Experience
- Pattern recognition
- A valuable network
It ended up paying off exponentially more. Just not when I expected.
Conclusion
So if you’re hustling, keep it up.
And don’t forget…
You’re gaining value in the experience and relationships along the way.