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I’m an honest person by nature - aware of my strengths and even more conscious of where I fall short. I am highly competent in doing what is asked of me, and usually make an effort to exceed these expectations. Basically I strive to give you what you are looking for.

Note the magic words ‘what is asked of me’. What happens when the asking disappears and instead you need to become competent in doing what you ask of yourself. Exceeding your own expectations. Striving to what others didn’t even know they were looking for. This, I am realising, is what makes the difference between someone who is successful in a job, and someone who is successful in life. 

Self-motivation isn’t a gift possessed by some and not by others, it’s an active choice and one that isn’t made lightly or easily. Right now I feel like I am in between two versions of myself - one that is good at what she does and one that doesn’t even know what she can do. And this is where the hustle comes in.

I’m not a natural saleswoman or networker or deal maker. Rather than an elegant transition from caterpillar to butterfly, I’m bracing for a much more awkward metamorphosis filled with false starts, wrong moves and embarrassing moments of inability (my absolute least favourite). But it’s a now or never moment that I plan to embrace fully and pull people around me who can give me a nudge in the right direction.

It’s a scary place, defining your own direction, building your own momentum, being accountable for your own decisions. But scary in a rollercoaster ride kind of way, and one that I’m sure gets kind of addictive.

So I’m embarking on the path to hustle. If anything I’ve said strikes a chord with you then join me on this journey and share your experience. And if you identify as a hustler, give me a call some time - I’d love some tips :)

Thank God Jon Stewart exists. 

“Let’s say you’re an evil Imperial overlord in the Star Wars universe, and you want to keep the rebels in line. You should build something they fear, say, a Death Star. How much will advancing your evil plans set you back? Short answer: it’s more expensive than you can possibly imagine.

Even if you can imagine quite a bit, Centives, the economics blog of students of Lehigh University, says it would cost “$852,000,000,000,000,000. Or roughly 13,000 times the world’s GDP” to build the Death Star…and that’s just the cost of steel production.

It turns out that it would take more than money to build a fully operational battle station. It would take cold, hard steel, made from hot molten iron. Although the Earth’s crust doesn’t have enough, the Earth’s core, on the other hand, has iron aplenty. In fact, Earth has enough iron at its core to produce 2 billion Death Stars—a veritable Death Galaxy.

But let you think it’s a simple task of Force-Lifting the molten liquid and molding it into shape, consider this:

Firstly, the two billion death stars is mostly from the Earth’s core which we would all really rather you didn’t remove. And secondly, at today’s rate of steel production (1.3 billion tonnes annually), it would take 833,315 years to produce enough steel to begin work. So once someone notices what you’re up to, you have to fend them off for 800 millennia before you have a chance to fight back.

So instead of constructing a technological terror or two, it might be better to try actual diplomacy. If nothing else, it’s absolutely more cost effective.”

via http://www.forbes.com