She drove to my office in a luxury vehicle, walked in sporting a designer bag in one hand, PRADA sunglasses and a Mocha-Latte-Whatever in the other.
She began to tell me how difficult it’s been to grow her business. How she can’t seem to convert her connections into consistent paying clients, that she’s decided to get a job. That her dreams are just that, dreams. That this business idea was a cute idea, but she now has serious bills to pay, it’s do or die time.
I sit back, breathe and recount in my head the multiple side gigs I endured (from working at a Macy’s beauty counter to blowing out hair in a Brooklyn hair salon -among others); the compromises I made with my husband and kids and myself to see my dreams come to fruition.
Everyone’s hustle is different. Everyone’s perception of hustle is too. And sometimes we just don’t know where to begin.
I can tell you this, from my personal experience, my business has flourished thanks to the countless women and a few invested men, who believed in my dreams just as much as I did. But believing is not enough.
You can’t do it alone. You can’t do it in your parked car. You can’t do it at home in your PJ’s (somedays, but not everyday). It’s called work, and it wears overalls.