Forget the hustle, use these real hip hop success strategies

I grew up in the 80's at the beginning of what is called "Hustle Culture". The go hard or go home mantra? where that meant create your own path, your own lane or go through the back door of what was already built and build an opportunity. Back then, there were little to no access for BIPOC Entrepreneurs, Creatives and Artist.. 

Those obstacles birthed the Hip Hop Movement. It was more than just music, it was dancing, fashion, hairstyles, the lingo and the way we did business. Now hustling, unfortunately just means work, work, work very hard but what is the intention? Does it bring value or is it to take out in anybody in your way ? The real hustle of hip hop was actually about community, working together interdependently to bring about dynamic creativity then bringing that together to create a dope culture. 

Social media gave us access into arenas we may have never known existed so the game has changed forever but the mentality of how to get to what we really want needs to be updated. We should be promoting collaboratively synergistic environments that are fueled with integrity and best practices. Gone are the days to think somebody has to lose in order for you to win. 

Now is the time to incorporate that there can be win - win outcomes because the facts are, we all have different goals and perspectives of what success and happiness looks like. The more we become communicative to add value not only to our lives, our businesses and the way we interact with the People around us, we can reach our goals faster. 

In being an Entrepreneur for the past 30 years literally going through all kinds of economic phases, here are the bare minimum strategies that are effective to utilize:

1). Setting yourself up to win.. 

Waking up to do an hour or two of exactly what makes you absolutely happy. That could look like stretching for 20 minutes to working out for an hour or going surfing like I do. Meditation, prayer, reading your affirmations to determine how your day is going to go.  listening to your favorite inspiring music and dancing. Then preparing your day to be productive, setting it up to maximize your income producing activities. 

2). Create an inspiring environment.

 This can be looked at two different ways. Either creating a clean, lively, colorful, inspiring atmosphere to work in or creating an inspiring environment with your employees, your contractors, the People you do business with.

3). Only hire People you would work for.

 This can not be said enough. Hire People that have similar values about the culture you would like to create. Hire People that if the tables were turned you would work for. Once we raise our standards, move with integrity and purpose, this gets easier to find. 

4). Love the Process because the progress is the happiness.

 The reason why most People are unfulfilled, uninspired and give up on entrepreneurship is because they hate the process. The most successful People in the World actually love the process, it's when they reach the goal or almost reach it that they become bored, delegate the rest and need to start something new because they chase the impact and not the money.

 That's why we see many Millionaires and Billionaires keep going. Oftentimes we can see comment feeds that talk about their greed and why is it they just keep going.  The methodologies you're implementing along the way to create the environment or vision to produce a successful project is where you will find the most fulfillment to your purpose. 

If you found these insightful, I encourage you to get a copy of  the 90 Day Journal for Creatives and Lifestyle Entrepreneurs.

It's an interactive workbook that helps you start right away using branding strategies to plan, prep, problem-solve, protect your time and scale profits while living a purposeful life.