Hard Work, Hustle and Grind

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Confucius.

Work is out there.

That is the ultimate goal for many, working a job you love. For some, it’s easier said than done. There are so many factors involved as to why someone enters into a type of work. Fortunately, a number will have an example to follow. They will choose a field of work that they see their parents in, or their friends are in, or take a job out of necessity. Others have already decided from an early age what they want to do. They gear all their schooling and training toward the vocation they set their hearts on.

Many others, like me, started working as a necessity. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. I remember when in primary school, I was nine or ten years old, my teacher asked the class, what do you want to do when you start working. I wanted to be a pilot, fly airplanes. That was the dream for the next decade. The old story, no plan, no action. I did enquire into the Airforce about what I needed to do to enter service. Whatever they told me, did not register, it ended there.

There were no barriers to pursuing the dream, I didn’t push hard enough.

Background

I left the 7th Form, my last year at secondary school. How people found me, I have no idea. A man called around home asking for me. He told my mum and me; he and whichever organization he worked for had arranged a scholarship for me. It would start on such and such a date, at AUT, a technical institute at the time. It was an engineering course I was enrolled in. It didn’t work out. There wasn’t anything in the course that interested me, except the modules on commercial law and economics. I paid attention in those classes. Engineering was not in my background, math's and physics was the closest I got to it. I apologize profusely to that gentleman and the organization he was associated with, for the effort they put into finding me, and caring enough to provide an opportunity for my future.  

Work out of Necessity

At the young adult stage of one’s life, the drive to find a partner and participate in the act of procreation is powerful. Unless you are prepped for it by your parents, teachers, counsellors and spiritual leaders, and I had them all, nature will take over. Despite all that counsel, a family was my future. A family has obligations, shelter, food, clothing, furniture, education, warmth, transport, and much more. It was necessary I find work and quick. My first long term job was with a printing company, after a year I was fired. Jobs were plentiful in the early 1970s, it took only a week or two, I was employed by the NZ Post Office. A job I enjoyed for many years. When a family is your life, work, any work that pays the bills, is absolutely necessary.

Hustle

How different things are these days, people have online side hustles, as well as the traditional side ones. My side hustle back in the day was cleaning a Post Office. After my day job ended, my family and I would load up and go clean the building. It was a small office staffed by one or two people. It had a public area and separate office behind the counter. With two of us cleaning we would be out of there in an hour. Some years later I was a weekend taxi driver. It was the better of the side hustles. In a day, I could make as much, as what the Post Office cleaning job paid for the whole week. Taxi drivers keep in mind, this hustle happened pre-deregulation of the industry in 1989.

The Grind

Fulltime work with a side hustle can wear on you after years of grinding. Looking back when I was decades younger, and took boundless energy for granted, I appreciate those years of work, hustle and grind.

This is my story. Whichever way you look at it, in your own lives, with your own stories, work is fundamental to humanity. Work shelters us and our families, it sustains us, it provides security, it connects us to others, it brings meaning to our lives, it supports our communities and our nation.

Daniel Brew Presents 5 Realistic Side Hustles - imo worth considering.