Category: Inspirational

Before Jamie Foxx was Jamie Foxx, he was Eric Marlon Bishop. He would go to comedy shows and sign up to go on stage and perform. Each night, the manager would call out the names of the amateur comedians who would perform that night. Eric (Jamie) was talented. After his first performance, he got a standing ovation. But then he ran into problems. The manager stopped calling his name. Eric wasn’t sure why this was happening but he was determined to get back on stage – by any means necessary.

After a while, he noticed that the manger would always call at least one female name. There weren’t many female performers at that time, and it seemed the manager wanted to give them a fighting chance.

So, Eric started listing himself under fake androgynous names. Pat, Kelly, Erin…Jamie. One night it finally worked. The manager called Jamie. He got back on stage and got a second standing ovation.

Not only that but when people called out his name “Jamie” to congratulate him, he didn’t respond, making him seem cocky. But his cockiness worked in his favor. People thought he had “a certain” factor that made him talented. His budding career came on track because he bent the rules. Because he hustled.

Hustling is powerful.

I used to think “hustle” as being busy. Doing things that didn’t matter such as “hustling about putting the house in order.” But the word has now taken a new meaning for me. It is about “doing whatever it takes to succeed.

The above story came to me from a book by the same name – “Hustle – The Life-Changing Magic of Constant Motion” written by Jesse Warren Tevelow. Jesse wrote and published this book in one week. In fact, wrote it in three days, edited it for the next three days, and published it on the seventh day. He did it as a challenge to himself.

The book is an easy read and perhaps nothing original but the most interesting part of the book is the story of writing the book itself, which Jesse has captured as diary entry within the book.

It inspires you to take on the challenge yourself.

And I did.

I have been stuck on finishing at least three books that I have started but haven’t been able to finish. I decided to write and finish my first book in one week too.

As I worked on it furiously for the past two days I realized there is so much I didn’t know about publishing a book. Jesse had the previous experience of publishing a book that took him a year to write. How the hell am I going to do the same with no experience of formatting, editing, designing a book cover, launching, and marketing? The only thing I am now comfortable about is the writing part. Everything else I need to learn.

But the case Jesse made about hustling didn’t go away. Hustling is about grinding. It’s about doing whatever it takes. It is about making things happen. It is about creating momentum.

And what creates momentum?

Movement.

When you take action and put things out into the world, stuff happens. Eventually, there are results. The more you move, the quicker you move, the more results you get. When you get results, it leads to inspiration and motivation, which then leads back to momentum. In other words, the cycle feeds on itself. That is why constant motion is the core characteristic of every hustler.

The act of hustle is more important than anything else. Whatever you are doing, whatever you’re planning to do start it. Constant motion delivers life-changing results. So focus on the constant motion part, not the destination part.

Jamie Foxx didn’t give up. By continually moving he eventually broke through the barriers and started his career.

Building momentum can lead to unthinkable results.

I have started to learn everything there is about formatting, editing, and publishing. I have decided to publish my book in a month. It is a challenge I am setting for myself. Dear readers, I need you to hold me accountable as I have started hustling.

Hustling requires a different mindset. It requires confidence, an aversion to staying in the status quo, and a desire to work hard. Hustlers do all kinds of crazy things. That is because they are not afraid of experimentation, failing, being laughed at, or making mistakes. They know experimentation leads to growth.

And when succeed in you experiments you become even more confident hustler.

So dear readers, I want you to raise your glasses to hustle and wish me success for my hustle – to write and publish my first book in one month.

Photo by Caique Silva on Unsplash

Elizabeth Gilbert’s (writer of Eat, Pray and Love) father is a Vietnam veteran. She recently shared a very touching conversation between her father and a woman of his age, who had been a hippie and anti-Vietnam War protestor. The woman said to her father, “I was against the war, but I’m sorry that we didn’t respect your service and your sacrifice back then.”

Elizabeth’s father reached across the table, took this woman’s hand and said, “Thank you for saying that. But here’s the thing — your side was right. The protestors were correct. The Vietnam War was unjust and inhumane. I didn’t know it back then, but I know it now. You were right to protest. You were on the right side of history. Without your protests, the war would’ve gone on even longer.”

The woman said, “But all the same — I thank you for your service.” And Elizabeth’s father said, “And I thank you for your protest.”

Both, Elizabeth’s father and the hippie woman have legacies they will be leaving behind. Their stories.

We too will leave our stories behind, and they will be our legacies more than anything else.

If my story is the legacy I am leaving behind then what is my story?

I have never seen my life as a story before. Things that happened in my life are mundane and commonplace. Choices were made, some by me, some by others for me. I got educated, found a good job, built myself a home. I got married, had kids, raised them like everybody else. Where is the story?

And yet when I look at other people’s lives, I can see their stories.

I can see the story in my parents’ struggle, their commitment to give us a good life and their conviction to their professions. I could see Elizabeth Gilbert’s father’s story. A Vietnam veteran who probably went to war at a very young age, to fight a fight which wasn’t his or even his country’s fight. Yet he put his life on the line not knowing until years later that he was fighting on the wrong side.

I could see the story of the woman protester who, equally young, fought a fight on the streets of her hometown, for a cause that didn’t directly affect her. But it mattered so much to her that she chose to face rubber bullets and water canons to make a difference.

Aaha! therein lies the legacy worth leaving behind.

My parents’ legacy was their struggles to fight the scarcities of life of their era to build a better life for themselves and their children. They did that through the medium of education. Their contribution was the propagation of education not only for their own children but for all the children. They were both teachers.

Elizabeth’s father’s legacy is in knowing that he was on the wrong side of the war, accepting that, rehabilitating himself, and becoming a contributing member of society.

The woman protestor’s legacy lies is raising her voice to help make a change so big that it saved thousands of lives and changed the course of history.

We all have stories.

Our stories lie in the choices we make, the lessons we learn, the things we do.

Most of the time we do these without realising that our choices, our lessons and our actions are going to stay behind long after we are gone.

That realisation itself is powerful. Now that we know what our stories are, we can make better stories. We can make better choices. We can learn more meaningful and deep lessons. We can do things that really matter. So that when we come face to face with our mortality we are ready.

We are not used to preparing for our mortality.

Which is a shame.

Death is as much part of life as birth is. We make so much preparation for the arrival of a new life but we don’t prepare ourselves for leaving this life. By that, I don’t mean leaving behind a will or writing your funeral plan. I mean writing your stories.

Have you recorded what choices you made and what lessons you learned? Have you written down which side you chose in the moment of controversy and which fight you fought to make a change?

Ever since I have entered the second half of my life I have more vigilant of my choices. Although the first half of my life seemed mundane and commonplace it still many stories of choices made and lessons learned.

And now that I know that everything I do will one day become my legacy, I can live the rest of my life to make better stories.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

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