“Every day I wake up at 5am, work out, have a cold shower, meditate for forty minutes, then I write what I’m grateful for and recite my affirmations before I’m in the office at 7am.” — The Hustler.
This sort of self flagellation that has become increasingly common over the years thanks in no small part to social media, and is by now, quite familiar to all of us. I’m talking of course about ‘hustle culture’, the persistent mission to continually strive for more-more-more, all the time, endlessly, indefinitely. It’s the pursuit of perfection because you are the alpha and you will win! Tired? Tough — keep pushing! You’re almost there. Go-go-go-go!
In its gentlest form, ‘hustle culture’ is an urgent pursuit of a passion, hobby or life goal. It’s putting in a few extra hours at the office; looking good for the boss and going after that promotion. It’s a cold shower in the morning then flipping items you found at garage sales on the weekend. It’s generating an extra income on the side between your nine to five.
In its darkest form, ‘hustle culture’ can become something quite different. It’s five hours sleep a night. It’s barely seeing your family. It’s never taking a break, never treating yourself, never enjoying or even paying attention to what it is to be human. It’s guilt for sitting down. It’s disgust at your own shortcomings and failures.
The artistic process, on the other hand, cannot be forced. It’s often slow, and for good reason too. Good art is at the very least the fusion of the artists personality; their soul, into their work. It’s life experiences represented in a different form, whether that be on a painters canvas, an actors monologue or a musicians sweet melody. The creation of such art relies on a few things, namely passion, inspiration, creativity and emotion — all of which are difficult to conjure up on their own and more often than not appear on their own accord.
Artists reading this will be all too familiar with the nature of creating art. Sometimes days, weeks, and even months can go by without ever creating anything and that’s fine. Art relies on experience, and experiences need to be lived in order to be translated into art. Experiences come from the day to day of life, which typically only goes at the one speed. You can’t rush life. Art also relies on imperfections, which goes directly against everything hustle culture stands for. Our unique, individual imperfections that we represent in our art are part of what makes each piece stand apart from the rest. Art captures and addresses imperfections then shines a light on them, whereas hustle culture tries to stamp them out.
“To require perfection is to invite paralysis.” — David Bayles
There is something to be said of course about discipline. Discipline is at the core of the hustler mentality but for the artist, discipline is rarely what you need. In the creative process discipline certainly bring some results, but trying to coerce your feelings into physical form; disciplining them, takes a mammoth effort. Artists instead require passion. That’s not to say that hustlers aren’t passionate about their pursuits, they most certainly are — but in a different form. Call it Passion Lite.
Then there’s speed. Hustlers by their very definition move quickly. To hustle is to ‘be in a state of great activity’. Artists on the other hand take their time. They’re often slow to rise and late to bed. They’re restless and flippant, switching between projects and constantly reshaping or completely tossing out ideas altogether. To lose focus as a hustler is the ultimate sin, for an artist it’s part of the course. Artists will turn their bad habits into beautiful lyrics or transform them into a color palette. To a hustler, bad habits are an abomination; an obstacle in the road to the end goal. Artists shelve an idea for weeks, only to come back to it and tear it all down. Leonardo Davinci famously said that “art is never finished, only abandoned” — you wouldn’t be much of a hustler if you abandoned every project you started.
For a hustler, working hard is their absolute essence; their mantra. Artists don’t get down to work until the pain of working is exceeded by the pain of not working.
Then of course there is ‘content’. Today it’s all the rage to produce ‘content’, whether it’s a podcast, a video series, a blog or a book. Content, content, content, more of it — all the time, for no apparent reason. Make no mistake, it’s hustle culture that has worked so hard to convince us that this is necessary; this endless battle for attention. It’s spread to every corner of our psyche and infected our minds and our methods, so much so that even the most steadfast of artists can’t help but feel slightly ashamed that they aren’t producing enough of this ‘content’. Some artists might be clever enough to marry the two together, content and art. This is an art form in itself, which we can talk about another time, but for most of us it’s just a trap.
“Post three to five videos per day”, has become such a common and simultaneously impossible practice to pursue (probably because it’s typically pushed by jobless children still living at home), that it has left countless artists feeling ashamed for not sticking to it. Or worse still, artists will be tricked into believing this toxic motto that they completely ignore their own work and instead become vloggers. If your goal as an artist is to produce art then surely your time should be spent writing three to five songs, sketches or sonnets a day (or month)— not condensing your work, something that took hours, days or even weeks to create, into a sixty second video in order to capture the attention of strangers you’ll never meet. Some artists might try to adapt this hustler ethos, but usually find that their work suffers, or at best is watered down or bastardised to such an extent that it stops being their own. Good art doesn’t subscribe to a template designed by a corporation in a distant land that couldn’t care less about how you felt when you made it.
Hustlers are necessary of course, and it’s only because of their tireless efforts and failed marriages that we have so many of our basic needs met, like running water, Amazon Prime, StarLink or iPhones. These methods however, are not necessary for artists.
So to the artists I say take your time, stay up late, fuck the cold shower and live your life at whatever speed your work requires. Don’t lose sight of what’s important to you. And to the hustlers, get back to work.
