Freelancing Is for Hustlers

Hustle is a dying concept outside of sports. Elite athletes know working hard, moving fast, eliminating distractions, and subjugating everything to their goals is critical for success. That is the basic definition of “hustle.”

Of course, not every athlete makes it to the NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL, or other top-tier sports. Only a few (compared to the legion of athletes in sports) hustle enough and work their way into a fantastic career.

Former Alabama Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban said it like this:

We can be:

• Bad
• Average
• Good
• Excellent
• Elite

“Everybody has a choice as to what they want to do and how they want to do that.” — Nick Saban

He goes on to say that reaching the top two levels requires special intensity, special focus, and special commitment. In other words — you got to hustle!

Too many aspiring freelancers read fluff articles and think a freelance career can be built overnight (or over one weekend). NOT!

Freelancing Takes Hustle

Freelancing is not for the lazy, easily discouraged, or faint of heart. It requires hustle, and it requires it every day.

If my freelancing business is to be a lasting success, I must work at it every day. Every. Single. Day.

If you are considering a freelance career, prepare to work hard and keep pushing until you reach your definition of success.

Hustle to Keep Learning

Keeping up with changing trends, mores, technology, methods, laws, tools, and industry needs takes hustle. Freelancers are on a never-ending learning curve. If you don’t like reading, listening, and learning, stay away from freelancing.

Hustle to Gain Clients

Nothing is forever, and this applies to clients. Great, long-term clients are golden — and they are rare. Any number of things can cause clients to vanish, drop you, go out of business, or just fade away. Don't consider freelancing if you don’t like constant prospecting for new work and clients.

Hustle to Pursue Excellence

There are untold millions of freelance digital workers out there who can produce mediocre work for peanuts. Building a solid reputation for excellence takes work — hustle. Never stop practicing your craft, sharpening your skills, and getting better at what you do. If you don’t want to work hard at getting better, leave freelancing alone.

Hustle to Maintain Balance

Work, work, work. Yes, you’re getting my drift. Freelancing is not freeloading — it takes persistent work to build a successful freelancing business.

But burnout is a real danger. It is a state of mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion caused by stress, and freelancing can be extremely stressful. The constant state of hustle can overwhelm you, so you have to hustle some to find and keep a healthy work-life balance.

How Can You Thrive On Hustle?

How does one come to “thrive on hustle?” How do elite athletes drive themselves to bring every aspect of their lives into submission to serve their goal of success?

It takes discipline. It takes sacrifice. But most of all, it takes a love of the game.

If you don’t love the hustle of freelancing, you’ll never make it.

If you don’t love the hustle of freelancing, you’ll never make it.

Why else would you discipline your habits, practices, and everything else to reach a goal? Successful freelancers thrive on their work, client prospecting, learning, getting better, and striving to be the best.

Find Something You Love

If you’re reading this far, I haven’t scared you away from freelancing. That means you are more apt to become a success than those who are unwilling to pay the price.

So, for you few who are still here, you get the golden ticket to freelance success:

Successful freelancers do what they love.

Any tasks that you can perform remotely for another business is your golden ticket to freelance independence.

How can you invest so much of yourself into a freelancing career? By doing something you love to do! When you love your work, work isn’t work.

I tell people this all the time: “I don’t HAVE to get up and write every day. I GET to get up and write every day.”

“I don’t HAVE to get up and write every day. I GET to get up and write every day.”

What do you love doing?

• Writing
• Photography
• Gaming
• Research
• Social Media
• Graphic Design
• Web Design
• Accounting
• Editing
• Video
• Sales

If you love something that businesses or individuals pay others to do, find a way to leverage that into your own successful freelance business. The opportunities are out there, but you must go find them; they will not fall into your lap.

I’m Still Hustling

I just turned 54 years old (July 2024). I’ve been a part-time freelancer since 2005, but my freelancing career began in earnest in mid-2013 and moved to full-time in 2018. I’m a full-time freelance digital copywriter who started my business on evenings and weekends until I could take it full-time. I now write and employ other freelance writers.

I’m still hustling to gain clients, learn new skills, get better at what I do, scale my business, and pursue my version of success. And I’m still loving what I do.

Freelancing is for hustlers. Do you have what it takes?