To Hustle or Not To Hustle…That is the Question
What a wild time we live in. I am nearly 40 years old and I have lived as a young adult without social media or a cell phone and also lived as a young adult with social media and a cell phone.
I remember taking photos of the hair I did and getting the photos developed at Rite Aid and then gluing them in a scrapbook for the salon waiting room at my first salon…! If someone would have told me then about the quality of the camera that would be on my phone, about video calling or social media…I don’t know if I would have believed them.
Now we are in a time where we can be constantly connected, constantly working and constantly located if we allow it. We are also in a time where Instagram posts are telling us to work less, not hustle and telling us to say “no” to whatever we want if it doesn’t feel right. It is SO CONFUSING isn’t it?!
In my opinion, I think both extremes are wrong.
I believe that hustle is necessary and I also believe that rest is necessary. I do believe they can co-exist and they must for a human to be successful in the society we live in. I personally think hustle is necessary in the beginning of a journey, whether that be a career, a life change, a new personal venture etc.
If you are a business owner, I am guessing that you OFTEN do things you do not want to do??? I am guessing you also have to meet with and spend time with people you don’t always want to meet and spend time with??? I know for sure that after the business is closed for the day, you are thinking about all of the things that need done or you are physically in the business fixing something that is broken. If someone doesn’t show up to work, you work. This is all hustle.
How I often feel…
One of the most harmful things we can do for ourselves or the people we are advocating for, is to say that hustling is “never” necessary or should always be “avoided”. In order to achieve your dreams and aspirations, you usually have to get uncomfortable, make huge mistakes, earn your way to success and work harder than you want to. Hustling builds grit. Grit is what helps you make it when things aren’t going so great.
Since the salon business is a customer service business, hustling is absolutely necessary. Hustling is what we do behind the scenes to make sure the guest experience is perfect. As managers, hustling is what we do to make sure our team’s experience is as perfect as we can make it.
I have noticed a big shift in our industry that sort of makes the client the “bad guy”. I believe this is born out of the “anti-hustle” mentality and quite frankly, a failure to see ourselves as guest care professionals. Some coaching platforms encourage the service provider to do the LEAST possible and make the guest or client do the MOST possible in order to schedule, check in or show up for an appointment (usually in order for the service provider to do less or to save money on the cost of doing business). This also goes for the desire to work very little and make a lot of money…this can come with time…after you hustle (there is a huge shift of professionals wanting to work part time and make full time wages at the beginning of their career. This is something amazing to work towards and a hustle typically must be involved in the early years to make this happen).
We are in customer service. We are in sales. We must hustle to care for the people we provide services for. Our personal lives are not the responsibility of our clients, we are responsible for showing up for them. As a salon manager or owner the same is true about the teams we serve, the team is not responsible for our personal lives, we are responsible to show up for them…once again this is hustling. I am from a time where if you take a day off and cancel your clients, you find a way to make sure they are taken care of…this is hustling…well it is actually great customer service (which seems to be called hustling).
On the flip side, I do not believe in overworking, over-giving or compromising your personal life for your work life on a regular basis. I believe we must have boundaries with our work and remember that work is certainly only one part of this beautiful life. I believe in building systems that care for your clients and YOU. Building the systems requires some hustle on the front end but then serve you and your clients in the long run.
My closing thought is, if we are unwilling to hustle and do the “not fun thing”, we will likely never achieve what we really want in this life…good things come to those who hustle…
So much love,
Melanie
xxo