I’ve seen there is a new generation of people who think hustling is just summarizing other people’s work, post a Twitter thread, pray it goes viral, and then brag about the new followers count.
So I wanted to summarize how the Internet looks right now, for those in the entrepreneurship cycle:
- Category 1: The makers. They are people doing stuff. Building things, creating value…
- Category 2: People talking about category 1 via Twitter threads, YouTube videos, blog posts…
- Category 3: People summarizing what category 2 said. Also via Twitter threads, YouTube videos, blog posts…
- Category 4: People doing meta summaries about summaries from category 3 using the same mediums
- etc
The makers from category 1 don’t go viral in general. They rarely write Twitter threads that go viral, YouTube videos with millions of views, or something in between. They are too busy working and hustling. People from other categories, however, enjoy fame from their viral threads and posts.
Why? People are attracted to ideas like “40 things Elon Musk does to be successful”, “6 lessons from the last X acquisition”, “How X made millions online”, etc. Most of them think they can replicate the success by following those lessons/ideas while others consume this content for entertainment.
This idea of going viral, having multiple likes, millions of views… is an illusion trap. People doing this think they are “hustling” and need attention as those in category 1. In reality, they are only entertainers.
There is nothing wrong in being an entertainer. But I’m sure this is not what they had in mind while doing so. Posting online and going viral will definitely help you get more followers, but does it help you achieve your goal? Is your goal to always write viral tweets? Because that’s the audience you’re attracting – those who like viral tweets -.
Getting new followers and making viral tweets is not hustling. Building something is.