Hustle + Opportunity + Failure = Luck 🍀
I was often told that Numo, my first successful company, was a stroke of luck.
At first, I thought so too. We dealt with countless challenges, rejections, and tons of anxiety, but we still made the company look like an overnight success.
If not luck, what else could it be?
Luck | Verb
“To prosper or succeed especially through chance or good fortune.”
In many ways, we were lucky. We knew the right investors, community leaders, domain experts, and landlords that helped us turn our dream into reality.
However, thinking back at everything, I realized that “being lucky” came from years of cultivating a hustle mentality, being open to all types of opportunities, and embracing my failures.
Hustle + Opportunity + Failure = Luck
Hustle
My definition of hustling is simple: When action meets persistence and patience.
If you don’t come from wealth or traditional business/tech backgrounds, you need to work extra hard to learn how to strike a balance between working hard while being persistent and patient.
Persistence
If you know you want to be an entrepreneur, stick to this vision. Don’t jump on the first corporate job that comes knocking.
For example, I had an opportunity to take a full-time role with my local government a few years back. It had great pay and even better benefits but I knew taking this opportunity would veer me away from my entrepreneurial endeavours. Rejecting this offer was a no-brainer.
Patience
When it comes to everyday activities such as cooking or driving, I’m the most impatient person that I know.
However, entrepreneurship is a long-term game that you play with long-term people so you have to be patient with the results.
“Impatience with actions, patience with results.”
- Naval Ravikant
Opportunity
Once you understand the value of being persistent and patient, hustling is all about saying yes to every opportunity you can.
However, don’t agree to do something only to brag about it on your CV or LinkedIn. Do it to add value to your own personal development.
If you seize the right opportunities and hustle hard enough, people will notice you. When they do, they’ll want to work with you, invest in you, buy from you, the list goes on.
I previously mentioned that Numo’s success stemmed from knowing the right investors, community leaders, and domain experts.
However, we didn’t meet these folks by sheer luck, we knew them from previous business opportunities (e.g., failed ventures, conferences, other work environments).
On the other hand, the worst thing you can do in the early stages of your career is to specialize.
Don’t go chasing after the hottest jobs in the market, find opportunities that would allow you to pursue your innate talents, your genuine curiosity, and your passion. Whether it’s volunteering, starting your own side hustle, interning at a startup, etc.
I know this shit sounds cheesy but chasing interesting opportunities has so far allowed me to build a community-based app, sell coffee on my e-commerce platform, mentor at a university, start a cannabis business, and more recently, get into the future of work space.
Now it’s your turn. Imagine everything you could be doing if you took an opportunity-based approach to self-development.
Failure
Chasing countless opportunities will inevitably yield countless failures.
I had 4 failed ventures before Numo really took off.
But I realized that I need to be persistent and patient with this process, so I accepted my failures.
Failures are like battle scars, it’s painful at first but you’ll end up learning from your mistakes and you usually end up with a pretty great story to share with others.
So embrace it and understand that this is just part life’s equation in generating luck.
Luck
What may seem like a luck-fueled overnight success to others is actually years dedicated towards cultivating a hustle mentality, being open to all types of opportunities, and embracing countless failures.
The best thing you can do for yourself is to cut distractions (e.g., Netflix, exes, etc), stay on the bleeding edge of trends, and continue networking.
This is the fastest way to grant yourself more time to nurture a hustler mentality, identify incredible opportunities, and work towards your goals.
Hi there! Thanks for reading 🙏🏽
I don’t write often but when I do it’s usually about my entrepreneurial journey. My goal is to provide actionable advice, examples, and perspective to people who want to start their own ventures or projects but don’t have a typical technical or business background.
