If there were one trait that identified success more than any other, it wouldn’t be intelligence, good looks, or loyalty.
It’d be hustle— or grit— in the dirty, sweaty, and most bruised version possible.
If you’ve ever watched Better Call Saul, you know what I mean. Jimmy Hustle never quits, even when he’s about to be executed by a cartel in the desert.
When Jimmy’s law license is suspended, he sells phones. When no one comes into his store, he finds the customers, even when those customers are biker gangs.
While you couldn’t describe him as ethical, you also couldn’t describe him as lazy, either.
Martyr Byrd finds himself in a similar situation in Ozarks when his former business partner and fiance are shot to death and dissolved inside a barrel full of acid. He moves to the middle of nowhere but beautiful Missouri to launder money for another feared cartel.
Even before that, he had $7 million in the bank, but he still drove a beat-up Camry and debated $10 purchases.
Byrd never stopped, even when that meant working all night and exhausting all possible options.
One might say cartels pushed both of these men to the brink because cartels only accept success or death, but there’s a deeper meaning.
Success in no field is easy. But it’s a lot easier when you invest your heart and soul into a craft, even if that craft is laundering money so your wife and kids aren’t violently murdered.
We should take a piece from these lessons and only accept the best we can truly offer. The exceptionally bright kids always stood out in grade school, attracting praise from teachers and envy or hatred from other students.
Even fewer people stand out in life— like Elon Musk, Travis Scott, and Warren Buffett.
More people are mediocre at their job or in responsibilities than we’d like to admit. One step toward avoiding that slog is truly grinding through the hills and marshes, even when we want to quit and see no immediate solutions.
Everybody gets knocked down, but you’re only remembered for what you do after you pull yourself back up.
But the darkest is always darkest before the dawn, and things are scarier until you’ve completed them.