The Hust for Success

Success!! Sounds very enchanting and pleasing, right? But on the other hand, its reality is very messy & disturbing. Why so? Because everyone wants it but only a few are willing to sacrifice everything to achieve it. I won’t lie, but it sounds like you are making a Deal with the Devil in the case of Success. Success never came so easily to anyone, instead, it took everything from him/ her who went for it.

So why chase Success? Why not just settle for a normal life and keep everything that you have instead of losing anything or everything? Why keep on hounding for an escape? Why burn your feet when you can just keep on chewing that everyday meal through your teeth? I will tell you Why. Why you should never settle in your life. Why you should keep yourself in the Testing Times? Let's understand this.

1. What Success is?

According to me, Success is a never-ending process. It can never end, for anyone. Because you don’t stop drinking water even when your thirst is quenched. Success is like Water, that is, even after having it, you will always feel its need at some point. That was the first homogenous factor between Success & Water which I stated. The second one arises when we look at its form or shape because, like Water, Success is also shapeless or formless and can be fit or adjusted into any scenario. Now, this might be sounding confusing right?

Let me throw some water on it by stating an example.

Mr Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, better known as “The Weeknd” never aimed at becoming an Artist

in the first place, instead, he only wanted to Earn a Good Sum of Money for himself and his family.

He left his home and dropped out of school when he was just 17 years old and went on to look for

opportunities along with his 2 more friends. And at that time, he had only two motives, either to

find an opportunity and become Rich or to commit Suicide.

He expressed the same intentions through one of his songs, Snowchild (After Hours), which goes

like this - “ I used to pray when I was 16, if I didn’t make it then I would probably make my Wrist

Bleed”.

So one day, he started uploading a few videos on YouTube, which caught the attention of the

majority of people who were into dark and contemporary R&B, and following such high demand

for more of his songs, he went on to release his debut mixtape House of Balloons, Thursday and

Echoes of Silence. His mixtapes topped the charts and received strong positive reactions which

further caught the attention of a famous Canadian-based rapper, Drake. Drake officially

introduced him to the world through his tour & shows across the Globe and marketed Abel &

Himself for mutual profits. This strategy made Abel Tesfaye a decent fan base, but, he still needed

a good amount of money to run this business and survive in the market. So in 2011, Abel had to

sell most of his upcoming Project’s lyrics & compositions to Drake for his forthcoming album

“Take Care” in the following year. He did this out of passivity and not because he wanted to. This

strategy costed him his next Project but led to the flooding of a good amount of money which he

invested to build his Record Label, named XO label.

Yes, the famous XO Label needed a good amount of investment at that time to thrive and survive

in the market and Abel made this tough decision and gave XO label its first and his career a

second chance. From 2011 to this date, XO Label has been the most prominent and prestigious

record label to exist in the Music Industry. And it has been exactly 10 years, he has been the most

consistent and purest R&B artist to exist in the market. He surpassed the greatest names in the

industry day after day and went on to claim his Throne. He got what he wanted, a Good Sum of

Money and he has it today. Today, his Label generates Millions of Dollars through Streaming,

Branding, Collaborations, Touring & Events.

Did you notice how Abel was able to fulfil his Dream? He leveraged his singing skills to build a

Dream Empire for himself and his crew. He never thought of becoming a Singer or an Artist in the

first place, instead, he just wanted to be Rich. The process involved in his Success took too many

shapes and forms according to the situations, that even the biggest Record Label owners never

got a chance to understand what he did right to make XO the greatest brand in the market.

Abel’s Success took the form of a Reputed Singer at first place but eventually ensued in the form

of his Need he needed in the first place, i.e., Money.

2. How do people perceive Success these days?

These days people are busy Glorifying the term “Success” instead of embracing it or

understanding it carefully. If you will keep on just glorifying one thing, it will surely vilify your

conscience and nullify your capability of understanding anything at some point. Success was

never meant to be Glorified, instead, it was meant to be used as a Sign of Respect to display the

justified result of Hard Work, Perseverance, Discipline & Penance. Glorifying anything for

unnecessary reasons can weaken its impact on the people and society as a whole, due to which,

the thing can lose its creditability for no reason.

Generation Z is mainly responsible for such havoc, as they have Glorified the term in such a

wrong manner that even if they complete a small task, they give it a tag of Success. I mean, I am

not being negative here, or trying to be Orthodox but don’t you think that it is just a part of the

Success or the part of the process involved in the Success?

They get proud of themselves so quickly without any validation, that it starts to fill them up with

Pride and Ego so quickly and they start to think that they have now achieved everything in their

life. They just don’t want to stay quiet about their process, instead, they always need someone to

convey their small struggles/struggles and tend to seek validation for any reason and are willing to

settle down with False Validations.

Now, what is the point of such Validation? No point at all.

So I think that one should not glorify the term Success redundantly, instead, one should stay Hush

about it and keep themselves devoted to the process of Success without seeking any Validation

and by denying Instant Gratification.

3. Hust for Success: Unrivalled method to surprise your Doubters

Hust is an obsolete past participle of Hush, and Hush means Silence. There is a famous quote

“Work hard in Silence, and let your Success make the Noise”.

Why do people should stay silent and stay concentrated on their work or hustle, and why not just

make noise when they achieve something or claim Success?

I will tell you why. Being devoted to your hustle or struggle even when none is watching you or

applauding for you is an Underrated Skill any individual should possess. I know it's hard to keep

on moving forward when none comes to you and says to you, “ I am Proud of you. Keep on doing

the hard work and one day you will achieve what you want to achieve”. But does that mean we

should give up? Or we should just start talking about the struggles or pain we dealt with till now?

No, we should not. You might not agree with me on this, but, none wants to see you Rise & Shine.

They will listen to you but at some point in time, they will use it against you to slow down your

process. They will use your pain points to break you down completely and mentally. Because trust

me, the world we live in isn’t full of Noble People. They will cut your hands off before they offer

you a ladder so that you can always stay in their debt by using their help for climbing the same

ladder.

Staying silent about your Success also surprises your hater/doubters every time. They will always

think of you that you are finished or you cannot do anything, but the moment they see you win,

they get scared of you. Do you know why they get scared? Because the winning part never came

out of your mouth, instead, it got conveyed through someone else. So, the impact of that 3rd

person is always going to be very hard on that person, because he always considered you a loser

or someone who cannot make it to the top. Now, if the message gets conveyed through you to

the same person, then it might not sound that impactful to him/her.

This is like the same scenario where you hear News through your friends but you don’t take it

seriously. But if the same news gets broadcasted on any News Channel, it creates a sudden

impact on your brain because of the News Delivery Style.

So, it is better to keep on moving like a Lone wolf, seek no attention, seek no validation, delay

instant gratification and keep on surprising and killing your competitors with your silent moves.

4. My Point of View on Success.

I never took Success very seriously, until I hit my Rock-Bottom in 2021 when I realised that I was

doing nothing special or extraordinary to beat the crowd of my age (at least). I always fantasised

about the concept of Success but never embraced it or even tried to practice it. I always wanted

to do easy things and always ran away from Hard Decisions. But, something changed in me post-

November 2021 and I started working on myself and dedicated my whole self to the process. I

devoted myself to the process just like Hanuman Ji devoted himself towards the service of Lord

Rama and I realised one thing, and it is the foremost and very undeniable thing, that, you will have

to lose your Comfort Zone at any cost to get what you want and need.

No opportunity will come to you and bang on your door, instead, you will have to take the first

step to go and break the door of opportunities. Not every opportunity will be meant for you, and

vice-versa. I never spoke a word about my struggle to anyone or displayed any sort of emotion,

like what I felt after losing it all or whatever going on with me. I have always paralleled my Career

and my process of Success with Music because whenever I needed an answer to questions

related to my Struggle or Self-Doubt, Music was always there to give me an answer for that.

Music showed me the path every time and it made sure that I always took the right decision.

The rent for my hard work was due every day but my Results always made sure that the dues

were cleared on time. I am still devoted to the process of this beautiful yet painful thing called

Success, and I still stay silent about my moves, my past achievement and everything else.

Because I want to see my haters getting scared of me when they hear about me. I want to see

that fear in their eyes when they a Lone Wolf walking among them.

And, I support and appreciate all those people who are or have been a part of this Journey called

Success and wish them All The Very Best.

“Life will never treat you fairly, so go out and state your motives for life very clearly”.