Quick note before I get into the post: I promised all my subscribers a free ebook for being a subscriber, and I havent gone back on my promise. The new book is in the post production phase and will be ready very soon. So if you are a “casual reader”, now would be a good time to subscribe!

Ok, with that being said…

In the black community, the term hustler has been synonymous with men and women that get money, plain and simple. We are talking about ghetto capitalism. Some may accomplish these ends illegally, but those people have a different title: criminal, and thats not what we are talking about or promoting here.

In today’s mainstream media, however, when a person uses the word “hustler”, images of dice shooting street con artists or snake oil salesmen immediately arise. But the legitimate definition of a hustler is an individual that’s upwardly mobile, success oriented, and seeks to combine street smarts with business smarts.

Alloy Access, an urban and multicultural marketing group conducted a study where they specifically define the term Urban Hustler as “an emerging and powerful consumer market”, and “ethnically diverse with aspirations to succeed and a shared set of passions”. I have written about this before, but I constantly find myself having to clarify the term to certain individuals who believe only the negative definition of the term applies. This thinking is erroneous. Theres nothing wrong with being on your hustle, or being an urban hustler. If you have ever played organized sports in school, coaches will prompt you to “hustle up”, or pick up the pace. They dont mean “pull out your bag of dirty tricks and unleash them on the other team”.

The way we describe the term, to be a hustler doesn’t mean you are constantly looking for ways to “hustle” people out of their money. On the contrary, you find creative ways to fill the need gaps that you see in your community, your hood.I have given hundreds of examples on this site and in my book of men and women like this, from Kobe Bryant to Dr. Randal Pinkett, the winner of Season 4 of The Apprentice (pictured above).

A hustlers only true adversary is the government, the biggest pimp, player, and con-man in the game. The government seeks to keep you in a never-ending state of poverty and dependence through welfare programs, illegal taxation (including income taxes), and manipulation of the country’s currency via the Federal Reserve. Therefore, the government would have you believe that if you aren’t doing things their way, then you are somehow doing things wrong. The true hustler sees through this manipulation and seeks to preserve his wealth by minimizing the government’s involvement with their business ventures. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

In fact, the very essence of the urban hustler is independence. Urban hustlers don’t have trust funds to fall back on. We don’t come into life with an easy path laid out in front of us. Most of us come from single parent, low to middle income households of scarcity. Some hustlers see the struggle their parents went through and that motivates them to do better. The result is that we become driven to get money. We go to college, network, sell, and do whatever it takes to make sure we don’t end up like our parents. We create our own opportunities, and educate ourselves by learning from the examples of older, wiser hustlers and players in the game.

So rather than using and thinking of the term “hustler” in a derogatory way, be proud to be a hustler. Teach your hustle – your way of stacking chips and climbing the ladder- to others.

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