As we travel the country spreading the gospel of Memphis, we run into more and more folks who want to be entrepreneurs or work for themselves someday. Some people are already doing it—whether it’s running and operating their own piece of real estate, or running their own lil photography hustle. However, while we’re steady focused on the creative process, I think we quickly forget how much our career falls on the people, mentors and community that help shape our hustle.
As an aspiring entrepreneur and someone who wants in on the creative culture, I’ve learned a few things from all of these conversations:
- We’re obsessed with talking about the “hustle” or the “grind”. Especially in Memphis, a city branded and living under the mantra of “Grit n’ Grind”, we love telling everyone how much we’re about the hustle. But what about when the hustle gets hard? What happens when the late nights and early mornings dedicated to the grind lose their sexiness? I would encourage all of us to keep going–what lies beyond the mountain we’re currently facing is greater than the season we are currently in.
- There’s a disconnect between our dreams and our pursuits. It’s really easy for me to talk about a career in the music industry. But am I taking clear steps towards making that happen? What does it look like to work on a side hustle while I’ve got to support my family through my current job? I’ve had to learn over the past few years to dream it, speak it, then take clear actions each week that get me closer to letting my talk be action.
- Entrepreneurship and the creative journey takes hours, months and years of work. Most of the people we think of as successful entrepreneurs have worked countless hours for other people preparing them for where they are today. (Y’all missed your shouting moment). Don’t neglect working a 9-5 or some seemingly “whack” position just because you want to work for yourself. By all means, take the leap and secure the bag. But make sure when you do, you can support yourself and your family.
If you want to chop it up about what it looks like to turn your hustle dreams into a reality, the Choose901 Alumni team is here not only as a sounding board, but as a resource to help connect you with opportunities on how to do that in Memphis. Hit us up if you want to talk!
