Don't put your hope in the hustle
it'll let you down (eventually)
On Friday morning,
One of the most respected modern Christian thinkers passed away.
And I saw this on LinkedIn, from a new founder:
we haven't seen our families in a year and moved 3 times
we didn't take a day off for a very long time, cried a lot, and celebrated a lot as well
this is what it takes to build a company
this is what you should look for if you are joining a startup
are the founders willing to do literally everything to make it massively successful?
if not, your equity will mean nothing at the end of your journey with the company, and that company will fail
I couldn’t help but feel empathy for the LinkedIn founder.
I get the need to feel validation (drive! hard work!) and potentially a better life.
Work (and money) does offer value.
But…
What if your equity does equal nothing?
What if the company does fail?
What if it’s only moderately successful, not massively?
Was it satisfying not taking a day off? Not seeing your family?
What’s a lifestyle (business) worth?
It’s also sad that a “lifestyle business” isn’t worth the effort. A lifestyle business is a derogatory Silicon Valley/Venture Capital word for uh… a normal everyday business.
You know the ones, that most people have.
The ones that don’t produce 10x multiples at $1B valuations.
The person running a small business.
The person providing for their families.
The person that didn’t skip their family celebrations, who may (or may not!) have gone to sleep at a reasonable hour.
Lifestyle businesses enrich communities, provide jobs, and give places meaning.
But here’s the problem: no matter if it’s a $$$-backed VC company, a small local software company, the windshield glass manufacturer, or the gas station at the end of the street — if all of your hope is in that business, that opportunity, then you will be let down.
It won’t fulfill.
Double Checking All The Boxes
I found some diary-esque writings on Substack of a marketing industry person I don’t know but know of.
They were rediscovering life in their 30s. Her own “hustle” achievements that ultimately proved unfulfilling:
Graduating college early
Getting a job in the industry they wanted
Finding love and getting married in their early 20s
But then there was a divorce with a lot of personal photos on the Internet that she worked hard to get deleted.
Life now, she said, consisted of less hustle and more appreciation.
She’s traveling abroad. And saying “yes” to a lot of things, forming a community she never felt she had when she was grinding away.
The hustle had let her down.
If you build your life on the hustle, it will disappoint. It may not necessarily fall down, but it will let you down. Even when it provides so many benefits.
The hope of the hustle is that something more meaningful is there, that ultimately isn’t.
It’s deceptive. It’s alluring.
The Void Remains
A few years ago, NBA player Kevin Durant won an NBA championship with the Golden State Warriors.
By all accounts, he’s massively successful in his chosen field.
He definitely checked all the boxes.
And has plenty of money.
He had success with his first team, but then jumped ship to a winner. He wanted a championship. He received one. And then another.
It wasn’t enough. Even for one of the best in the world, at the top of his craft.
Work can’t handle those expectations of identity and self-worth.
Every Good Endeavor (Work)
Tim Keller was the pastor / Christian thinker that died. He was very respected and wrote several books.
One is Every Good Endeavor.
It’s a book about work.
I’ve read it twice, and I don’t like to think about it.
Because it’s really challenging.
Challenging because it slams me face-to-face with all of my hopes and dreams about work.
Often I make work into something it wasn’t meant to be —something that satisfies.
And when it doesn’t, when we don’t get the raise, don’t get the promotion, or don’t get the project, we are mad and upset.
Whereas in reality, the job is an assignment, something we’re being asked to cultivate and refine and do.
That doesn’t mean we can’t have it make money or that it has to be a non-profit, it’s about trying to solve problems in the world and we have different giftings and spheres of influence — so that can range from working on productivity software (😉) or taking out the trash or serving people at Chipotle.
“Whenever we bring order out of chaos, whenever we draw out creative potential, whenever we elaborate and “unfold” creation beyond where it was when we found it, we are following God’s pattern of creative cultural development.” — Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor
With our work, we bring order out of chaos. That’s what Adam and Eve were tasked to do. To cultivate and maintain.
And then their work became harder after the sinful fall.
Bringing order out of chaos isn’t meant to only fulfill us, it’s meant to serve the community. Otherwise, it crushes us.
“A job is a vocation only if someone else calls you to do it for them rather than for yourself. And so our work can be a calling only if it is reimagined as a mission of service to something beyond merely our own interests. Thinking of work mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes a person.” — Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor
Work is important. That’s why the “lifestyle businesses” aren’t a failure.
They are an integral part of the community.
And I don’t know why some people get to be Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk. Life isn’t fair. God never promised that it would be.
“In short, work—and lots of it—is an indispensable component in a meaningful human life. It is a supreme gift from God and one of the main things that gives our lives purpose. But it must play its proper role, subservient to God. It must regularly give way not just to work stoppage for bodily repair but also to joyful reception of the world and of ordinary life.” — Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor
Let me be clear: Work is not bad. It is good. It’s what we do with the majority of our life. However, we shouldn’t distort a good thing and make it into an idol. (Tim Keller has a whole other book on this!)
To substitute life for work gives work more responsibility than it can handle.
It’s not where our hope belongs.
“Work is not all there is to life. You will not have a meaningful life without work, but you cannot say that your work is the meaning of your life. If you make any work the purpose of your life—even if that work is church ministry—you create an idol that rivals God. Your relationship with God is the most important foundation for your life, and indeed it keeps all the other factors—work, friendships and family, leisure and pleasure—from becoming so important to you that they become addicting and distorted.” — Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor
Don’t put your hope in the hustle.
Last Time
Last Thing(s)
“This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself” — Blaise Pascal
This post wasn’t the original plan. The original was about how writing as a core competency isn’t enough; hopefully, we’ll hit it next week.
Recently had coffee with
who is working on some cool screenwriting and art projects.This post on french fries was good
Do you use Notion?
I want to make my newsletter ideation / creation process into a template. Interested? Reply back w/ Y/N
Keep going,
Josh Spilker