A few months back I had a chat with a friend after a long time. I was asked what Job I do for a living and deliberately I said am a hustler. The next question was how do you feed your family? What does your wife do? So you just survive on your wife’s salary? So you are more like a house husband.
I just laughed off the questions my friend was asking. It actually got me thinking how we look down on people not in Formal Employment. It’s quite sad we are a society that believes to make it in life and to be successful one has to be in employment. From a young age we are told to go to school and get a job.
Who is a Hustler? According To urbandictionary.com a Hustler is someone who knows how to get money from others. A hustler is someone who makes miney in any way they can or want. Huslers are peiple who are forced to use their brains to make it in this world.
They are street-smart. They know how to get money and is skilled at doing it to.
From the definitions above, we are all hustlers. The only difference is how we do it. Some do it with by being in employment and some by being Entrepreneurs. For Example take a person who repairs phones at town Centre. He makes on average about a K100 per phone he repairs. If he repairs just a minimum of 5 a day that’s K500 kwacha in a day. He works Six days in a week meaning he makes K3000 a week. In a month he would make K12,000. He also buys and broken phones and repairs them and resale’s them. He probably makes more than an average accountant who gets a net salary of K6000. Before you look down on someone just because you are in formal employment do the math.
They are many Examples I can give about the people in informal employment. But the bottom line is we need to change the way we look at the people in informal employment. In Life all careers are important. A person wakes up early morning to sale newspapers at the street lights provides newspapers and airtime at your convenience. The woman that goes around the neighborhood selling vegetables saves ones time and transport to the supermarket.
Let’s Celebrate the Hustle. Besides when you buy from the Talk time guy on the street you sending a child to school, you are helping feed a family just the same way when you get paid to your salary at the end of the month. This Labor Day let’s celebrate the hustlers out there for they make the world a better place and keep the wheels in motion. Gone should be the days we get to see a house for rent saying “only those in employment can rent this house or only bankers can rent this house”. Good things don’t come to those who wait but to those who hustle.
