Leaving the Hustle Behind Again
Ideas on pursuing our individual dreams, not the dreams of others. Learning to hear our inner voice to guide us toward them while filtering out the noise of modern society’s dream pushers.
Hi,
I made a conscious decision to turn my back on “the hustle” a while ago. Since then, I’ve written about the hustle and its destructive qualities.
A couple weeks ago, I left the hustle behind again. This time it took the form of moving my co-working membership from WeWork to The Yard.
I’ve been a reluctant WeWork member for a few years. On one hand, I recognized a while ago the need to stop working at home. WeWork provided a place to do that. Yet, I always felt at odds with their “hustle harder” culture.
This culture touched everything, including and not surprisingly, many WeWork employees. The energy of the workspace was heavy with it. The scripted drive for perfection that underpinned everything felt suffocating to me.
The WeWork employees seemed to under enormous pressure to comply with this drive for everything to be great. All the time.
The corporate culture seemed to discourage independent thinking. Scripts, templates, and processes replaced free thought. I tried two different locations over the years and had the same experience.
The real estate scandal talk didn’t sit well with me, either. I started wondering if the desire to squeeze every penny of revenue out of the space and its members was related to the scandal.
Over the past few months, the number of marketing events increased too. Every day it seemed, a company was in the lobby trying to sell you a hyper-specific premium product, e.g. an organic dog treat made from cricket flour.
Really 🙄
So I moved on to The Yard after meeting its co-founder at a neighborhood yoga class. The vibe feels much healthier there after these first two weeks. It feels lighter and more spacious.
I’ve noticed the people working with The Yard seem more at ease. They actually sit down and enjoy a coffee or lunch together rather than hunching over a spreadsheet.
I feel grateful to have made the switch. Not paying to be bombarded by the relentless pursuit of hustle perfection feels refreshing.
I do feel grateful for the few connections I made at WeWork. If you’re one of them, please drop me a line so we can keep in touch.
Catch you next week,
Chris
Semi-Random Thoughts
The blog migration’s 🎉You can see it here. I’d love to hear what you like and more importantly, one thing you’d like to see changed. Your feedback is greatly appreciated 🙏
My stress level has felt elevated over the past couple weeks. I’ve come back to reading The Abundance of Less, in the hope it helps ground me.
It did when I started reading it a while ago. Let’s see if it does again.
See the book details in the Current Reading List 👇
I’ve also changed Music of the Week to Current Playlist. I hope you enjoy the expanded selections I’ll be posting.
Photo of the Week
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Current Reading List
The Abundance of Less: Lessons in Simple Living from Rural Japan by Andy Couturier
The Abundance of Less has 133 ratings and 29 reviews.
Current Playlist
RhythmCast 070 - Heat Alliance (124 Recordings / Closer To Truth) by Rhythm | Free Listening on SoundCloud
Stream RhythmCast 070 - Heat Alliance (124 Recordings / Closer To Truth) by Rhythm from desktop or your mobile device
124 RECORDINGS - MAY MIX by OWAIN-124 RECORDINGS | Free Listening on SoundCloud
Stream 124 RECORDINGS - MAY MIX by OWAIN-124 RECORDINGS from desktop or your mobile device
Podcast of the Week
Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase on leaving Goldman and the Innovator's Dilemma
Fred is an “OG” in the crypto world. But we barely talk crypto — instead, we talk about his journey. Fred joined Goldman as an FX Trader because it was “the cool kids” job, only to find an industry suffering from the classic Innovator’s Dilemma — one focused on extracting rents, instead of innovation.