The Lost Art of Hustling

I couldn’t help but be captivated by Jamie Foxx’s stories on the latest episode of The Tim Ferris Show podcast. Mr. Foxx is, as we all know, both a very accomplished gentleman and a ‘Perfect 10’ in the charisma category.

One story in particular stood out to me. It stood out because of how Jamie’s success in stand up comedy turned out, specifically when juxtaposed against our inability to hustle.

Kids don’t know how to hustle. My peers don’t know how to hustle. Young coaches don’t know hustle. Athletes don’t know hustle. Of course, there are exceptions but as a whole, I observe a lot of semi-committed, confused, non-contributing men and women standing around with their palms up wondering why things aren’t going their way.

Jamie Foxx started his stand up career and made it work with what he called “social media before social media.” With cards after his show, he’d ask his audience to write their phone number down if they liked his jokes. Leading up to subsequent shows Jamie would page (not text) these folks about his upcoming show. Hundreds of pages sent out personally inviting an audience. He did this with parties, too.

Mr. Foxx isn’t even his birth name. It’s the result of more extreme hustle. Even after demonstrating some talent on stage, other comedians would sabotage his name being chosen on Open Mic Nights around town. However, after observing that any woman on the sign up list would get called up to “break up the monotony,” he put down gender neutral names, “Stacey Green, Tracey Brown, Jamie Foxx…”

Jaime Foxx was called. He stood up, surprising everyone on the staff. Killed it. The rest is history.

In 2015, it may be safe to generalize that if you aren’t accomplishing what you want, there’s a good chance you just aren’t trying hard enough. Hustle hard.

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach