What I Learned From a Hustler

In my audacious opinion, this financial society was not created for my success. Don’t be naïve, if you’re like me, it wasn’t created for yours either. I am under 40 and I still live at home, not because I haven’t been dreaming of moving since I was 19 but because I haven’t been able to get a leg up! If you’re anything like me, you are young, ambitious and bursting with big dreams for your life. If you’re anything like me, your life has yet to start and it’s almost maddening.

I see so many other young people moving on and up to where they want to be and they do it so effortlessly. I only feel proud of them. At times, I wish I were more like everybody else, able to complete high school, go on to State College, study Business Administration or Accounts or Nursing  and  merit a standard issue government job or some other white collar job. Reader, maybe you’re like me and you just cannot live like that. Maybe you want to make waves! Maybe you want to create your own niche! Maybe you actually want to love your job. Don’t buy into the propaganda: it is very possible to have a job that you actually like! I was listening to this year’s Queen contestants discussing their hopes and dreams and an idiot next to me said something like, “Dominica have space for dat? It doesn’t make sense have big dreams so.”

I’m thinking, somebody has to start it, why not you? True, you may need somebody to believe and invest in you but that’s doable. I don’t know exactly how doable  it is if you’re interested in the arts or something unconventional and you need a loan…but they say determination is key.

 I’m tempted to throw in something about family money but I don’t have to, you know what I mean.

I hate those stupid Blackberry Messenger pictures that say things like “Monday Again!” or “I Hate Mondays”. Maybe the user is tired (fair enough), maybe the user is lazy (fair enough too), maybe the user stole something at work and will be dealt with on Monday (how many times can you really steal something at work and be dealt with on Monday, a bit much) or, wonder of wonders, maybe the user actually hates his job!

I don’t know about you, reader, but I refuse to live my life like that. I know what I want to do and to be and I’m so passionate about it that I believe I’m bound to succeed but I am not yet an island. So why am I not one of those young persons who like standard issue? I believe I am meant to break the mould…er …so what am I doing wrong?

Well, I took all the right steps and made all the right noises and requested a Government scholarship to a university of my choice. That worked out fine, but like many others, my first year’s tuition reached the bursar about fifty phone calls, letters, emails and close to two years after enrolment. Needless to say, the bursar wasn’t pleased and I was no longer welcome at my school, where I was an honour roll student. That’s when I learned the valuable lesson about the ineffectiveness of complaining.

Then I tried applying for a loan from the bank dedicated to development and since my parents had no land of their own, that was futile. That was when I learned the valuable lesson that every man should try to be an island.

I am not interested in any speeches about persistence and tenacity. I have had many jobs between then and now, among my friends, I am known as the person who has worked everywhere and done everything. I’ve given up on hopes of work pension and I may be one of the many young people who would not have had steady jobs for long enough to acquire security in their old age. You doubt? Consult Social Security.

Nevertheless, brothers and sisters, there are those people, maybe you, who I call hustlers. Life hasn’t always been fair to you but you press on, you sell something, you bag something, you type something, you sew something, you braid something. You are always doing something. Maybe a different something every time but you’re one to be admired and praised. You do what you have to do. There is no shame in legal hustling. That’s what I learned from a hustler.

Reader, don’t be one of those people quick to blame everybody else for your problems, on the other hand, don’t be one of those people who frustrates himself wondering what you have or haven’t been doing.  Instead, be one of the happy few who is determined to take every blow in stride and never complain. 
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