If you want to be a successful freelancer, you’re going to have to hustle. That’s what I’ve always been told, and have somewhat found to be the truth. Clients are not going to fall into your lap, and doing an ‘okay job’ probably isn’t going to cut it.

I’ve successfully been freelance writing since 2022, and that comes after a lot of hard work and, of course, hustle. But is hustle culture always a good thing?

In my opinion, absolutely not. I’ve witnessed so many peers and friends fall prey to the pressures of toxic hustle culture. There can be serious risks to pushing yourself all the time from your health to your relationships, and even to the respect others have for you.

Keep reading to learn:

1. What is hustle culture?
   1. The good side of hustle culture:
2. The dangers of hustle culture
   1. Danger 1: Burnout
   2. Danger 2: Inauthenticity
   3. Danger 3: Constant Need for Growth
   4. Danger 4: Quantity Over Quality
   5. Danger 5: Dissatisfaction
   6. Danger 6: Using People
   7. Danger 7: Susceptible to Scams
   8. Danger 8: Greed
3. How to grow without toxic hustle culture (a step-by-step guide)
4. Is hustle culture bad? My thoughts…

What is hustle culture?

Hustle culture is the experience of constant grind and hard work to pursue an always-moving goal. Similar to a growth mindset, ‘hustlers’ are people who believe there is always something new to achieve if you work hard enough to get it.

From working multiple jobs to put yourself through college to networking non-stop to break into a new field, the hustler motto might just be ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’.

The good side of hustle culture:

• Growth mindset
• Motivation
• Creating new opportunities for yourself
• Saying yes to new things
• Potential for increased income

When done with balance, hustle culture can open up opportunities and pull you out of challenging times. As people, we are capable of so much more than we believe of ourselves, and sometimes we have to hustle to find that out.

The problem is that there can be a darker side to hustle culture. When you believe that with enough work, anything is possible, not making progress can feel like a direct result of not working hard enough: Failing at something out of your control quickly seems like a failure of yourself on a much deeper level.

Hustle culture, in particular, refers to the larger mindset of doing more, working harder, and exploring every angle. There’s a growing movement with social media that tells us we should have at least one side hustle and could 10x our salary if we just do x,y, or z.

This is when hustle culture becomes toxic.

The dangers of hustle culture

Hustle culture isn’t always a good thing. When you don’t know when to stop or how to draw boundaries, it will leave you susceptible to negative self-talk, exhaustion, and even scammers. And the dangers don’t stop there…

Danger 1: Burnout

According to Forbes, 54% of people believe hustle culture will lead to burnout…and there’s a reason:

If you believe that the more you work, the more you get, it becomes suddenly very easy to work all the time…and feel guilty anytime you take a break.

Pushing yourself beyond your limits for an extended period of time is the perfect recipe for burnout – and trust me, overcoming burnout usually takes much longer than falling into it.

No one can be hustling 24/7. Taking breaks to rest and recharge is a major part of growing your career and building a new life. Even if you do successfully hit your goal, you’ll be too mentally and physically exhausted to enjoy it.

Danger 2: Inauthenticity

One thing about hustle culture is that it pushes you to be sharing your progress all the time. That means posting on social media, launching new projects, and leading conversations with your latest work updates.

In the freelance community, I know a hustler when I see them. Over time, I start to take their social media posts less seriously and stop believing everything they say about their ‘amazing new venture’. I love getting excited for peers over their wins, but when there’s a new ‘win’ every single week, the people around you are going to start seeing your updates as inauthentic.

Danger 3: Constant Need for Growth

There is a difference between pushing yourself and forcing yourself. Whilst it’s great to strive to do your best and dream big, it is equally as important to be able to sit in the moment and focus on the present.

If you feel pressure to constantly strive for more, try taking a beat to ask yourself what it is that pushes you forward, and if you are afraid to stand still. There is huge power in being present and grounding yourself in reality. You might even discover that investing in the now can often be so much more valuable than living in the future.

Danger 4: Quantity Over Quality

It is not uncommon for those deep in hustle culture to have three, four, or even more jobs and side hustles on the go at any one point in time. Let’s be real: the more you do, the lower the quality of everything is going to get.

Hustle culture can lead to spreading yourself too thin over a number of projects, giving none of them the attention or work they need to truly succeed. Ultimately, you have to ask yourself if it’s better to have great success in one thing, or mediocre progress in many?

Danger 5: Dissatisfaction

Mindset is everything. Hustlers who expect constant growth and movement are likely to become dissatisfied by anything less than perfection. Suddenly a normal job, consistent income, and realistic hours become boring, making it increasingly more difficult to find happiness in the mundane elements of life.

I love variation in my day and working on multiple projects, but I also love knowing when to stop. No one can hustle forever, so make sure that you’ll actually be happy if/when you ‘reach your end goal’.

Danger 6: Using People

We all know what it’s like to feel used. And it sucks.

A lesser-spoken risk of falling into hustle culture is that it can change the way you interact with the people around you. Hustling means doing everything you can to reach your next goal, and that can easily slip into seeing everyone around you as a business opportunity.

Asking favours from friends is one thing, but constantly mining your network for sales, testimonials, or opportunities is going to make you more enemies than allies in the long run.

Danger 7: Susceptible to Scams

Here’s the blunt truth: most side hustles in 2024 are scams. Social media is full to the brim with ‘hustlers’ whose hustle is selling you get-rich-quick schemes and courses with zero actual payoffs. Most people deep into hustle culture are doing it only for themselves, and that means not caring about the effect (or harm) to those they meet along the way.

If you’re going to be hustling and working a lot, make sure it is on credible and legitimate projects that will give you long-term and sustainable benefits – if there was a way to get rich quickly and easily, everyone would be doing it.

Danger 8: Greed

One of the great positives to hustle culture is that it can help you to get through a particularly difficult time. The other side of this, however, is the hustlers who want more but don’t need it.

I’ve seen people become rude, irritated, and impatient when their new projects do not work out overnight. This is bad for you, and it’s bad for business. Hustling doesn’t guarantee success, money, or opportunity is going to fall at your feet. And it certainly doesn’t mean you should demand it.

How to grow without toxic hustle culture (a step-by-step guide)

Wanting growth is obviously not a bad thing…it’s a great goal for any freelancer to pursue, as long as that growth is sustainable. You’re not going to make six figures in six months, but maybe you shouldn’t want to.

Real growth takes time. You could force a spike in sales overnight, but your profits would crash the very next day. I would rather choose a sustainable upward trajectory. Building something real takes time and hard work, and with that sustained hard work comes pride, knowledge, and excitement.

Read more: Why I Want to Grow Slowly

To encourage sustainable growth in your freelance journey, here are the steps I recommend taking:

1. Use SMART Goals: Keep growth realistic but achievable
2. Practice Daily Gratitude: Ground yourself into the present and remember the progress you’ve already made
3. Be Selective: Only choose projects that align with your business values and greater goals
4. Price Based on Value: Making the most and spending the least money is not always the right decision
5. Ask Yourself if this is Sustainable and Scalable: Could you do this in the long term and what might this project look like in one, five, or ten years?

Is hustle culture bad? My thoughts…

I think the truth is that hustle culture is what you make of it. There is no doubt in my mind that there is a very toxic side to hustling where people will do anything and use anyone around them to further themselves and their careers, but this is only to their own detriment.

What matters is establishing a strong set of business values and long-term goals, and then making sure that all new projects or career moves align with them. Hustling can be a great tool to push past your self-inflicted limitations and, at the end of the day, hard work almost always pays off.

Just make sure you’re not basing your own value on the outcome of your hustle. Being able to sit in the present is one of the most important skills I’ve ever learnt.