“Hustle” Is Terrible Advice for Most People: Not Everyone Can be an Entrepreneur

Let’s stop romanticizing the entrepreneur dream.

Business advice is easy to find. You only need to open your explore page, and you will find thousands of people who can teach you how to do an overnight business.

There are many gurus that tell us everywhere that they are making thousands of dollars monthly, that making a side hustle is the key to happiness, and that it is a good idea to just quit your job and follow your passion.

They make us think that “If you are not hustling, you are losing.”

However, this is not completely true. Just as there are people who were born with the vocation to be artists, doctors, or engineers, having your own business is also something that is made for a specific type of person.

I loved something I read from Jerine that said:

“Successful content creators make it look like having an online side hustle is easy. But is now that I'm enjoying the process that I can talk about my past struggles.”

People have a bad habit of just showing us the benefits and success, making it seem like everything is simple. So when they start a business and see that is not what they thought, they get frustrated and depressed.

For this reason, I will explain 5 reasons why having a hustle could be bad advice for you and why being an entrepreneur is not always the answer.

Some people build a business but never build a life.

Once I read a phrase on Reddit that changed my perspective on seeing business and saving money in general:

“Build the life you want, then save for it.”

The guy finished his story saying that if he could go back in life, he would gladly give away his money and work if it meant he could have experienced more of the world, passion, and stay with someone he loved.

He basically builds his saving but never built his life.

Many people believe that the key to success in a business is working hard and nonstop. Even Elon Musk said in an interview that the key to success is to work like crazy, at least 80–100 hours every week to “maximize the opportunities.”

Even if you think that you will never have to sacrifice free moments of your life to focus on your side hustle, there will be times when it will be completely necessary to do it, especially when you are starting.

I don’t mind working overtime in my side hustles because it is something I enjoy right now, but many people are unwilling to make that sacrifice. There are other more important things in your life than spending long hours building a business.

If at some point, I realize that it is no longer worth working extra hours in side hustles, then I will leave it and go back to look for a job that allows me to do what really makes me happy.

If you are not willing to sacrifice outings with your friends, afternoons without doing anything, even quality time with your family, it will be more difficult to grow a hustle.

We don’t all have the same abilities.

When I was in high school, I did an internship that paid me $100. With that money, I bought portable chargers and started selling them at my school.

In a week, I recovered my investment and earned $100, so I decided to give my best friend chargers to expand my business and help her make money too, once to realize she couldn’t do it.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

— Albert Einstein

Although it is true that even if we do not have a talent, it is possible to do something that we are passionate about if we put effort into it, if that motivation does not exist, we will not get anywhere like what happened with my friend.

You need to actually enjoy something to start doing it every day. Even if you are not good at it at the beginning. What makes you keep doing it and improving if you desire to make it big.

A passion doesn’t mean a successful business.

Just because you like doing something for free doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to monetize it. Some hobbies are good because they free your mind from work and problems.

Also, a business involves more than just concentrating on doing something that you are passionate about. In fact, you will do less of what you love to do.

For example, I love to record videos and take photos of my trips. I had the idea to make a Youtube channel with all my experiences and help my friends decide where to go. But when I started taking that project seriously, I stopped enjoying it.

That’s because I no longer just have to record videos. I had to make an upload plan, edit professionally, take care of what people liked and make new ideas.

By monetizing something that we enjoy, our brain stops seeing it as an escape from reality to something more professional and serious.

The reality is that when you open a business, you have to run the business. That means that you have to do and manage many functions from marketing to accounting to supervising employees to dealing with customers and more.

So, the hard truth is, at the end of the day, you actually spend less time doing whatever it is you enjoy doing to work on the logistic part.

Your responsibility as an entrepreneur is not to do one task you are passionate about; it’s to run a business.

There will always be a risk that not everyone is willing to take.

Running a business comes with many types of risk.

Some of these potential risks can ruin the business, while others can cause serious damage that will cost time and money to repair.

Many people are not willing to take big risks, and that is fine.

My boyfriend is a person with a very low tolerance for risk. He invests only in what he is sure he will return on, and he doesn’t like anything that takes away his peace.

For that reason, despite being good at what he does, he loves working remotely with jobs that offer him a monthly payment rather than freelancing or starting his own programming company. He’s managed to make that work perfect for him. He has obtained good promotions and worked with international companies that allow him to have a good income.

You can perfectly work in what you like in a company and achieve a salary that allows you to earn like someone who has a business. You just have to do your research correctly and do your best.

There is a “burnout crisis.”

A recent Gallup study found that 23% of people reported feeling burned out at work very often or always, while an additional 44% reported feeling burned out sometimes.

Also, according to Harvard business, the psychological and physical problems of burned-out cost an estimated $125 billion to $190 billion a year in healthcare spending in the U.S.

Given this reality, telling people to “hustle” more seems totally reckless.

When you are working on your own business, you are more likely to have a mental crisis due to all the things you have to take care of. For example, there are times when even resting, I can’t feel better, and I have to invent new methods to take care of my mental health.

For a person who suffers a lot from anxiety and stress, an 8–5 job is probably much better than starting a business for their well-being.

Final thoughts

A side hustle is not always the answer. There are too many factors that you must take into account before starting a business. Also, you must always keep in mind that not everything will turn out as you want.

Don’t be afraid of “missing a great opportunity” just because you are unwilling to do something because you don’t want to take risks. You can also accomplish great things in a full-time job.

I am in the world of side hustles because it is something that I enjoy doing. I love to spend all day working on my projects, I have a high-risk tolerance, I make a system for my burnouts phase, and I don’t mind losing some of my free time to achieve something.

But many people enjoy life; they work hard at their own pace that doesn’t hurt and are doing well.

And it’s okay to give yourself permission to do the same.