Saturday, July 28, 2012

Are you a hustler or an entrepreneur?

An entrepreneur is someone who "organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business". Being a hustler is not a bad thing and it is true that most entrepreneurs are natural hustlers but it also true that most hustlers will never become entrepreneurs. When an entrepreneur is building a startup, he must hustle, but he knows that he must hustle on building his system so he can hire other hustlers to work in the system.

So which one are you? Are you a hustler or an entrepreneur? Many think these two are of the same thing but when you look deep into it they are pretty much different. 


- Hustlers lack leadership - A hustler remains prisoner to his own system, and once he stops hustling, he stops earning while an entrepreneur once he has built his own system, is able to walk away from it, come back many months later, and find it doing better than even before he left. 

- Hustlers lack real long term vision. eg a car salesman is a hustler, the car dealership owner is an entrepreneur or a consultant is a hustler, a person who owns the consulting firm is an entrepreneur.
-Hustlers lack strategy - Both are after the same thing (financial freedom and wealth) but unfortunately only one will actually accomplish that. 
- Hustlers lack business knowledge - eg the importance of capital gains versus appreciation and cash flow. 
- Hustlers lack financial knowledge - eg if you live in the US filling 1099 vs Schedule K-1 has a huge impact.

- Hustlers lack clear focus - Making the next sale is what important to a hustler, building a company and leading his team is what the entrepreneur is focused on.

- Hustlers lack humility - When entrepreneur screw up they are quick to find a solution to make better to their customers but when a hustlers screw up he moves on to the next customer, leaving the previous one with a bad experience. You see, the hustler put the almighty dollar ahead of his customer.

At the root of the hustler-entrepreneur dilemma is that one focuses on himself while the other focuses on others.  Being an entrepreneur requires massive humility.  To him/her, brand equity matters more than a quick buck or commission.  This is where customer service comes into play.

Sometimes entrepreneurs fall back into the hustler mentality but then get up and go back to the right track.  

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