The Dark Side of Hustle Culture That No-one Talks About

Hustle culture, or “the grind”, is one of the most controversial topics at the moment. Whether you’re watching the news, scrolling through social media or just talking to a colleague, it seems you can’t get away from the subject. But what is hustle culture exactly? To me, hustle culture is the pursuit of money and/or fame. It is, for lack of a better term, the driving force behind entrepreneurs, fitness influencers and social media celebrities alike.

I myself lived and breathed hustle culture for a while before experiencing all the negative side effects. My daily routine, every single day, was along the lines of:

• 6:00am wake-up

• Gym

• Work

• Self-Improvement

• Sleep

If this sounds familiar to you, you’re probably in the “hustle culture” mindset yourself. Furthermore, before we dive in, want to preface this by saying that I don’t disagree with working hard or “grinding” away, I still do. What I will explore in this blog, however, is how critical it is to acknowledge that balance is required and that the extreme ends of hustle culture are leading you into the jaws of negativity, depression and a possible mental breakdown.

My Experience with the Toxic Nature of Hustle Culture

Turning back the clock to 2017, I had just left university as an ambitious, eager graduate and was walking into a shiny corporate job. For the first time ever, I was experiencing the 9–5. Except, it wasn’t 9–5.

You see, I had always had a dream that I would get a fancy corporate role and I would mould myself into Harvey Spectre from Suits or one of many others TV show characters that lived the life I glamourised. I got up early every day, I went to the gym before work, I turned up early and I left late. In the evenings, I’d work on myself or a side hustle before taking a going to bed and doing it all over again the next day. Not only did I have the dream of achieving a glamorous life-style but all the people I followed on social media, so called “influencers”, were doing the exact same thing. I was constantly bombarded with “the early bird catches the worm”, “you can sleep when you’re dead”, you’ve heard them all before.

In the years between 2017 and 2020, I was involved with starting at least 4 side hustles, watched countless hours of “how you can be better” type videos and put myself into a mental state where I constantly told myself “you must keep pushing to become more”. Every negative thought or feeling I had, I suppressed. It made me feel exposed so I got rid of it, or so I thought.

What actually happened is those emotions compounded and in the late summer of 2020, I broke down. I remember the day vividly. My partner and I were building a hutch for the rabbit (woodworking was my go-to for stress relief) and the staples we were using to fix the chicken wire to the frame were being difficult. Out of nowhere, my anger and frustration boiled over into tears and the next thing I can remember is crying, uncontrollably, on the sofa. I couldn’t stop. For a moment in time that felt like an eternity, years of suppressed emotion came pouring out. On reflection, thinking back to that day, it felt f**king amazing the let it all go. The issue is, I should not have been in that place at all.

Final Thoughts and Lessons

The dark reality of hustle culture is you can get so bogged down in it. You can surround yourself with motivation to keep pushing, to keep grinding. You can train the social media algorithms to pump you full of “get up and get that bread” content. The one thing you can’t do is fight biology. Unless you create an effective method for dealing with your emotions, you will reach a breaking point, no matter how many times you wake up at 5am.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t try and improve your life. I still have my 9–5, I write this blog and I’ve been the co-founder of a number of businesses. I invest in the pursuit of financial freedom. I still read self-development books and I recently completed 75 hard, which by definition pushes you to the limit of mental resilience. Ironically, as a result of slowing down and giving myself the opportunity to hit the reset button once in a while, I am more productive and more successful than I was before. So, what changed? Three things:

• Firstly, I acknowledged that I wasn’t able to push myself 24/7, that breaks are essential and when I feel burnt out, it’s okay to step away for a while and hit the reset button.

• Secondly, I found a path to inner peace, which helps me keep my emotions in check and allows me to exist in a state of happiness, almost all of the time.

• Finally, I’ve implemented principals and core values into my life. These help to keep me grounded and keep my focused on what’s important.

I hope that if you take one thing away from this blog, it is this: