Transcription
Hustle culture is the idea that productivity, working long hours, and grinding at the expense of things like personal needs or a social life, all for the sake of money, is very important. It's promoted and sold to us regular folk by guys like this.
"You mean everybody?"
They're like, "Do you know how many people tweet hustle and work six hours a day?" Like, "I know, I know."
"Slaves worked all the hours they were awake for their entire lives. I think if they can do it, so can I."
"If you're a guy in your 20s and you don't have a Lamborghini, you should actually sit down and have like a serious discussion with yourself."
"Here in my garage, just bought this uh new Lamborghini here."
Now, of course, some of this seems really ridiculous, but it's not always that crazy. A lot of people in the hustle culture community are really good at selling you the dream of working hard and getting rich, but they don't give out all of this information for free. Usually, it comes at a cost. And after years of these gurus selling lies, scams, or information that you could find yourself for free, people are starting to wake up and realize that most of hustle culture is a scam.
So, how did society let these guys make millions off of selling a dream to the masses? Why is hustle culture so prominent in America, especially? And what made Gen Z so anti-hustle culture? Well, to understand hustle culture's impact and its flaws, we have to understand why it's so big in the first place.
According to BBC, the entrepreneurial boom in the 1990s and early 2000s laid the foundation for the hustle culture narrative. They note the rise of venture capital financing helped build technology titans in Silicon Valley, companies including Google and Facebook, which rocketed to dominance. These high-profile successes, famous for their intense, all-consuming work cultures, cemented Northern California as a global hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. The very public tech and dot-com booms made your average Joe think that they could make it as an entrepreneur if they worked hard. I mean, I'm sure we've all heard somebody say that Steve Jobs started in his garage.
Thanks to the internet and the rise of e-commerce, it is probably true that it is easier now than ever before to start your own business and be successful. So, this inspired a lot of people to try and do so. The idea of working hard and being smart with your decisions has always been around. I mean, I just read a book called "The Richest Man in Babylon" with finance tips written from 1926. And even back in the '80s, Wall Street had a mantra of "greed is good."
"If money is evil, then that building is hell. This is the most obnoxious group of money-hungry, low IQ, high energy, jackrabbit, [ __ ] wannabe, big-time, small-time, shit-talking, bothersome, irritating bunch of [ __ ] I have ever had to endure for more than five minutes."
But hustling, working three jobs, grinding, "Thank God it's Monday," all that stuff is a little bit newer. Hustle culture ideology says that people are overworking not because they're economically driven to, but simply because this is the way go-getters get what they want. Growing up, I feel like this mindset was always placed upon me by others, whether it be family or teachers who were saying that to achieve, you need to simply work harder. And I don't know about you guys, but I feel like when I was in school, when they were teaching us about entrepreneurs, it was like the coolest thing. It was the best thing you could do. And it was part of the American dream, with again, Steve Jobs always being the go-to prime example.
UC Riverside said the picture of success looked like the stories of Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs. People of power and high status who threw away their social life and focused all of their attention on developing what are now multi-billion dollar enterprises. With these stories came the belief that the average person could also achieve such success if they did the same. I even remember watching this show in class in 8th grade called "The Men Who Built America," which was a series about like the Carnegies and the Rockefellers, who were just the biggest entrepreneurs in the world. It seems like this idea is heavily ingrained in the American education system.
And to be fair, it does make sense, especially for Americans. We've been hammered since we were kids with the idea of the American dream. The idea that everyone has the opportunity to achieve a better, prosperous life through hard work, determination, and initiative, regardless of where you start. Ironically, the Wikipedia page for the American dream says that originally the emphasis was on democracy, liberty, and equality, but more recently has been on achieving material wealth and upward mobility. I could be reaching here a little bit, but I don't think I am. And I think that the idea of grinding until you make it to the top is an idea or a value that's been ingrained in American culture.
So, obviously, this is nothing new. And it seems to have really taken off with millennials, especially. According to Highbrow magazine, there was a time when bragging about 80-hour work weeks, side hustles that bled into early morning grind-set routines, and LinkedIn posts celebrating unpaid overtime was a badge of honor. Hustle culture, America's favorite brand of self-inflicted servitude, thrived on the illusion that success was a meritocracy of exhaustion, where working yourself to the bone was the golden ticket to prosperity. Millennials bought into it hard.
"I worked my side hustles all weekend because the bills don't pay themselves and I honestly don't have a life. So, these were all of my side hustles and how much I made doing each one."
"Hustle, hustle, hustle. Sleep was sin in my household. Sin. I saw my dad asleep one time in my life."
"Yeah, you can't teach hustle, folks. You either got this [ __ ] or you don't. I promise you. And I mean, I got this [ __ ] I promise you."
Obviously, this trend has crept into the younger generation as well. And it's become a very big thing. And this isn't just an issue individuals who want to succeed as business owners face. A lot of people in the white-collar world face it, too. A lady named Paige Hansen, who was interviewed about this, said, "I worked when my boss worked. No time was off limits. Everyone expects everyone to be available 24/7 because you have your cell phone and your laptop with you always." There are even studies that show that the 40-hour work week is more of a myth because people actually tend to work 47 hours a week on average. And that roughly 25% of salaried workers work 60 hours a week, likely not getting overtime since, you know, they're salaried. And the blue-collar world is obviously very difficult, too. Don't worry, I'm not forgetting about you guys. And I think the memes speak for themselves.
"Well, my collar's bow and my neck is red."
So, it's clear that everyone in every industry is encouraged to work hard and hustle. I mean, it feels like you have to to get by nowadays with how pricey everything's becoming. But, I think in the last decade or so, hustle culture reached its peak. There are two types of hustle culture in my opinion. The first is more traditional, and it encourages you to climb the corporate ladder. Work hard and remain loyal to your company, and one day you'll be the CEO, or at least some big executive. But the other type encourages entrepreneurship. And I feel like this is where things get even crazier.
Gary Vee is among the first people that come to mind when I think of hustle culture. Gary Vaynerchuk is a serial entrepreneur, author, and most notably the god of hustle culture. I don't know how many times I'm going to say hustle culture in this video. I apologize. I feel like I've already said it like 50 times, so uh just bear with me here. Now, others have come before Gary Vee singing a similar tune, but Gary Vee's very obnoxious and brash personality captured the internet's attention in a special way. At its core, his message wasn't bad. He said that if you work hard, save your money, sell things you don't need, and grind, you will be successful.
"There's so many people that are talking [ __ ] about how big of an entrepreneur they're going to be and how much they're going to achieve. And they don't work on weekends. You know, I worked every Saturday of my 20s. Like, and I talked to 20-year-old entrepreneurs every single day. Lately, I've been saying to them, 'This Saturday, you're going to have more time off than I've had in my entire 20s on a Saturday. So, like before you tell me how you're going to be bigger than me, start thinking about what you're actually doing.'"
But he's also known for being a little bit ridiculous.
"My whole life is about knowing everything about 13-year-olds, but you're in the jungle with them. I have to watch from above."
"Thank you, man."
"You're welcome, bro."
Regardless, his message is inspiring. And when he isn't saying crazy or extreme things, he may actually be making some good points. Him and others like him have inspired countless hustlers. There was this sense that with massive effort came massive rewards. And the cool thing about that is effort is democratized. Anybody can put in effort. It wasn't about talent. It was about hard work. If you worked the hardest, you'd win.
Another person who blew up from this craze was Tai Lopez, who went viral for running this YouTube ad that so many people saw all the time that it became a huge meme.
"Here in my garage, just bought this uh new Lamborghini here. It's fun to drive up here in the Hollywood Hills. But you know what I like a lot more than materialistic things? Knowledge. In fact, I'm a lot more proud of these seven new bookshelves that I had to get installed to hold 2,000 new books that I bought. It's like the billionaire Warren Buffett says, 'The more you learn, the more you earn.'"
Guys like Tai Lopez and Gary Vee were the prototype for much more annoying hustle gurus that would eventually come along. But here's why they were so successful. A lot of what they would say was true, just mixed in with a lot of random garbage. Tai Lopez isn't wrong in saying that knowledge is an important tool in success. Obviously, you have to know what you're doing, but he doesn't tell you what to read or give you the knowledge himself. He leaves you wondering how you can take your next step. That way, he can sell it to you.
The most common trap you'll run into with these sorts of hustle culture gurus is that they will sell you a product, traditionally and most memely, a course. Ironically, if you go to Tai Lopez's Wikipedia page, his career section begins with, "In 2014, he created an online business course named '67 Steps to Success,' which he described as learning the 67 steps to become a millionaire, how to live the good life, and the grand theory of everything." The course, ironically, was $67 a month. So, basically, he started his career selling courses on how to be successful. He had apparently ran some dating sites early on and made some good money, which from what I've seen seemed pretty illegitimate.
Regardless, all of these gurus try to sell you something. I mean, Gary Vee recently launched his own NFT collection, which, well, we've seen how those usually go. And even the "Rich Dad Poor Dad" guy is a certified fraud. But hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people have bought his books.
Alex Hormozi is one of the most recent people to promote hustle culture. And I'll admit, he's not the worst. I like some of his content, just some of it. But he does get pretty ridiculous.
"The first step is that we have to cut all costs so that we can take more risk. When I say all costs, I mean all costs. That means you don't eat out anymore for anything. And if you're hungry, you deal with it. And if it's not from a discount grocery store, you don't buy it. Clothing, like what you have right now on your back is everything you need for the next two years. Period. No exceptions. Just keep reusing it. Trade or go to Goodwill."
"This right here isn't that crazy. Saving money, especially when you don't have much, is a good practice. But then he'll say things like this. I want to break the myth in this video that you need to go make a million dollars and that you need money to make money. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 different ways that you can make a million dollars for little or zero money down. The next one is that you can get people to give you their businesses for no money down. Good friend of mine actually did this and he combined four different information businesses into one business and they were all small businesses. They were all doing about a million-ish a year. I get small's relative, but you like and so he combined them all to be a $4 million topline, million and a half bottomline business for no money out of pocket. He literally said, 'Hey, I know you don't want to do this business anymore. Just give it to me and I'll pay you the income that you were going to make for this business for the next two years.' And they said, 'Sure.' And so he combined all those businesses together and then overnight he owned an asset that was doing a million and a half a year in profit and 4 million in topline. And it cost him nothing to do it."
This video is titled "10 Different Ways to Break Down Making a Million Dollars." I remember watching this video a while ago and being really annoyed because his advice isn't inherently bad. Like, the ideas themselves aren't horrible, but they're all super vague and realistically unachievable for your average person. The hustle gurus all sell you a dream that it's actually not all that hard to make a ton of money. All you need is the knowledge, which is available if you click his link in the description and buy his course or his book or whatever else it is. Even watching Alex Hormozi's videos, I mean, he has to make so much money from his content. I can't imagine he brings in crazy views. And that's how these guys really make their money. It's not because they're some insane entrepreneurs.
Overall though, I think everyone I've covered so far is all right. They're not the worst people ever. The basic core advice that they give is solid, and the mindset they suggest is all right, but it's just vague enough and just flashy enough to get you, the viewer, to buy into it.
Once you get a little deeper down the hustle culture pipeline, past the more motivational stuff, you get to the even more extreme people. Of course, there was Andrew Tate, who sold his "Hustlers University," which was like $50 a month, where you could learn that you were brainwashed. But I don't think we need to go too deep into him and his scandals. That's all too obvious. However, Sebastian Ghiorso, or however you're supposed to say his name, is probably one of the best modern examples I have of hustle gurus. He blew up on TikTok for saying things like this.
"A kid that goes to a church in Arkansas. He's 17. He started dropshipping two months ago. I don't know how many products he's tested, but it, it failed initially. He spent a grand. He lost all his money. He saved up some money and tried again. So far this week, he's made five grand with 30% margin. So, he's made his money back and then some. And he used the free course. It's free. And the truth is he's just a random kid from Arkansas, right?"
"You're a random kid from all random."
"If you're a guy in your 20s and you don't have a Lamborghini, you should actually sit down and have like a serious discussion with yourself as to why you don't have a Lambo. Because it's, I realize now that it's so incredibly easy and there's so much money out there and $200,000 relative to what is out there in circulation and what you can grab, especially now with AI tools that you can leverage like never before. $200,000 is chump change and people will say I'm out of touch with reality and they can suck it because it's just not true. And I really don't like this guy. I used to get so many of his TikToks on my feed and he's the most blatant example of 'I rented this Lambo with my dad's money until enough people fell for it and bought my course and I could eventually buy my own.' And the reason I know that people do this is because I'm familiar with YouTube gurus who have told me they've rented penthouses and cars so that they could exaggerate their wealth and then sell courses on how you could do it yourself too if you start a YouTube channel."
The worst thing about Sebastian in particular is he's one of the newer hustle gurus, and there are tons of people like I just mentioned, similar to him online selling these ideas. There are lots of different methods that people like this will promise to teach you. Day trading: you just buy stocks low and sell them high. Boom, you're rich. Dropshipping: you just make a website, find a cheap supplier in China, and mark up the prices without ever having to risk buying inventory. Faceless YouTube channels: use AI to make a bunch of shitty YouTube channels at once that will bring in tons of money. And trust me, there are plenty of methods that these people will promote.
"It's a weird feeling because we're 22, 23 and we're making what people make every single year every single day. It feels like I'm cheating in life right now and just living in like god mode."
"How do people watching do that?"
"In order to learn how to run, you have to learn how to crawl. I think if you are starting from square one and don't know how to make any money, do something to get you from zero to 100 bucks a day. I think TikTok organic dropshipping is a great opportunity. Where should they learn?"
"We actually have a free course on exactly how to dropship. It's completely free. So, I think everyone watching should join."
The problem is they make all of this sound really easy at face value, like they are get-rich-quick schemes or something, when in reality, it isn't that simple and there are tons of people actively trying to do these things already. The markets are very saturated because of these gurus, which makes it even more difficult. There's also a big link between these types of people and the ones who say you need to wake up at 5:00 a.m., like the red pill type of people. These are the guys that watched "Wolf of Wall Street" and "American Psycho" and decided to make it their entire personality.
And of course, I don't think all of this in general is inherently bad in and of itself, but I think the influencers and the gurus exaggerate and make everything way more extreme than it needs to be. But like I've said, it's more than just these big influencers that you see on TikTok or YouTube. It's an entire mindset that has permeated various facets of society. Millennials adopted hustle culture with almost religious zeal, propelled by influencers, LinkedIn thinkfluencers, and the rise of the #girlboss ethos that told us that burnout was just part of the journey. And of course, corporations lapped it up, eager to squeeze every last drop of labor out of a workforce convinced that unpaid overtime was just an investment in their future.
According to Aaron Griffith from the New York Times, in New York, where the throw pillows implore busy tenants to "Do What You Love," neon signs demand they "Hustle Harder," and murals spread the gospel of "Thank God, It's Monday," someone recently carved into the floating vegetables' flesh: "Welcome to hustle culture. It is obsessed with striving, relentlessly positive, devoid of humor, and once you notice it, impossible to escape."
And I'll be honest, everything I've covered in this video, aside from maybe the more meme stuff or the more extreme stuff, always used to inspire me. Growing up and hearing about entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and gurus talking about making millions, always pushed me to want to do that myself. I even bought a dropshipping course when I was 16. As you'll notice from my sneaker video and this one, I was a little bit of a sucker growing up, but I also was infatuated with learning how to escape the matrix, as many people will say. I never wanted to live life on other people's terms, whether it be a boss or sitting in a cubicle all day. And I really hated going to school. And I know I'm not the only one because millions of Americans and people across the world clearly feel this way. They want to, like any other human does, live their lives, enjoy their time with family and friends, travel the world, and things like that. No one wants to work until you're 65 and then think about taking a vacation every now and then.
The deep despair that people feel about the work culture we've created is what makes hustle culture so appealing. It's an opportunity to live life on your own terms. And that is what has always fascinated me about entrepreneurship. And that's why I bought that dropshipping course when I was 15. And it's probably why so many others fall for these gurus and their scams. But are these gurus really scammers? Or are all the hustle culture influencers and promoters out there really trying to just help us?
There are various problems that come with hustle culture. But let me be clear in first saying that I don't think it's all bad. I think that the idea of working hard and making smarter choices with your career or your finances and being successful are all good values. And I think it promotes a healthy lifestyle and goals. But what I don't like about hustle culture is when people take the idea of working hard and succeeding, and then flip it into a "you need to work 24/7, you're lazy and pathetic if you don't. Money is all that matters. Cut off family and friends if they don't understand. And by the way, it's actually really easy to get rich, just buy my $100 course."
Like we've seen throughout this video, the hustle culture gurus will bait you in with their amazing promises and vague knowledge bombs, just so you buy their course, books, or other products. Even with just watching their content regularly, you're helping them to make money. And the worst part about hustle culture is that it's permeated almost every single industry: finance, manual labor, e-commerce, media, and many more. So, hypothetically, if you want to succeed and you're looking into an industry that you're interested in, it's tough to avoid the pitfalls of falling for their empty promises.
And this is by far the most toxic symptom of hustle culture. It's taking a good core value and stretching it to the extreme at the cost of your physical health, your mental health, your relationships, and everything else. It encourages unrealistic goals and expectations. According to Aiden Harper, who created the 4-day work week campaign in Europe, he said that hustle culture is toxic, saying it creates the assumption that the only value we have as human beings is our productivity capability, our ability to work rather than our humanity.
I saw a Reddit thread that summed up the evolution, or I guess the de-evolution, of hustle culture fairly well. Someone said, "The sad thing is hustle culture was a positive thing. It originally meant hustle so that you can work your dream job or career, be comfortable financially, not necessarily rich, be kind to yourself, treat your body right, etc. Now hustle culture has become this weird toxic mess." The original poster responded saying, "We went from 'work hard, play hard' to an endless cycle of 'work even harder, maybe play later, but not really.'"
Another toxic symptom of hustle culture is the gig economy, which has utilized the hype of hustle culture and the American dream to trick people into working for less. The gig economy consists of people who are often working a regular job, too, doing things on the side like DoorDash, Uber, and things along those lines. However, one of the major flaws with things like this is that these people on average are often paid much less than your average wage worker. And while it's sold as a dream of working on your own time, usually in the long run, you're better off actually starting your own thing rather than working for one of these companies. I won't go too in-depth on this, and honestly, I think the gig economy could be an entire video in and of itself, but it's very clear that companies and rich people are taking advantage of hustle culture.
Like the New York Times said, "Hustle culture's virtues of relentless work remind me of nothing so much as Soviet-era propaganda, which promoted impossible-seeming feats of worker productivity to motivate the labor force. Today's messages glorify personal profit, even if bosses and investors, not workers, are the ones capturing most of the gains."
But it's not all bad. I think people at the very least are waking up to and turning against hustle culture. Gen Z in particular, the younger generations in general, are so against hustle culture for a few reasons. First of all, after being inundated with these hustle influencers for so long and seeing the funnel always lead you to a $50 course, I think people realize that truly wealthy people don't need to make content about it or sell you a course. Why would they give away free game if they were so successful? In most cases, we realized that these people weren't genuinely concerned for us doing well, but instead wanted to profit from us. Well, I mean, not everyone realizes this. Some people are still pretty desperate or gullible. But with how big people like Gary Vee, Tai Lopez, and others got, big memes they became, it became more and more apparent that this was all some motivational mumbo jumbo that they would use to get us pumped up enough to give them more of our time, attention, and ultimately our money. That's why people like Gary Vee are memed so hard online.
"Thank you so much."
"Have a good day."
"You know, garage sales. Garage snails. Everybody's too [ __ ] slow these days. God damn it. You know, I'm going to go up there and I'm going to rip his [ __ ] face off. Not physically, but financially, okay? I'm about gratitude, longitude, latitude."
"How's it going, Gary?"
"Ah, brought the video guy this time. It's an NBA finals."
"About to rip his [ __ ] face off."
"And we're letting that go for 500."
"I'll do four."
"Again, I appreciate the offer for 400, but we just can't."
"No, $4. Oh, $4. Are you out of your [ __ ] mind?"
"I might be."
"Oh, you are out of your mind. That's a knife. Okay, cool."
"But you know what? I'm not out of a good bargain."
"I mean, the top comment on this video is, 'What's funny is the fact that this isn't even an exaggeration on how Gary is like.'"
But not only are people, for the most part, aware of these hustle influencers, they're becoming more and more against the culture itself. People are starting to prioritize their personal lives over their careers. And according to a study, 20% of people would take pay cuts if they could have a better work-life balance. Along with Gen Z entering the workforce, the COVID-19 pandemic forced nearly the entire world to stop what they were doing. It gave people the space to consider what they wanted out of work and life. Megan Carnegie of BBC News says that economic uncertainty and greater awareness of inequality can make both the ideas and language of the "rise and grind" mentality feel outdated and out of touch. In fact, every single article I've read about hustle culture's decline always points to the pandemic. Overnight, millions of workers, many of them loyal employees who had done everything right, were laid off via impersonal Zoom calls or even emails, left to navigate an economy that suddenly had no use for them.
People, whether it be corporate hustlers or entrepreneurial hustlers, are waking up to the bigger problem that Megan mentioned: economic uncertainty and greater awareness of inequality. Instead of calling for regulations, workers' rights, or less work hours, the opposite path is to adapt and rationalize. Why complain about systems supposedly out of your control when you can work 80-hour weeks and build yourself up to be Jeff Bezos? Those union workers are so entitled, they're lucky to even have jobs. You don't have to be a communist to call out the endgame of capitalism. However, in the United States, you will be ostracized and labeled as such.
"Hard work pays off" is a popular quote used amongst Americans and is further perpetuated by the people who have made it. Just as rich celebrities thank God for their blessings, the high-rankers of capitalism thank the system for allowing them to obtain a mass amount of assets and power. When working-class people take these billionaires at face value, we decide to fight and toil to be among the 1% rather than realizing that we hold all the economic leverage. Regardless of your politics, it is an objective fact that wealth and inequality in a poor economy are making the American dream seem more and more out of reach than ever before.
According to the Federal Reserve, the top 1% of households owned 31.7% of all of US wealth in the third quarter of 2025, the highest share on record since the Federal Reserve began tracking household wealth in 1989. Collectively, the wealthiest 1% held about $55 trillion in assets, roughly equal to the wealth held by the bottom 90% of Americans combined. It's harder than ever before to reach that level with the top 1% hoarding so much money. And I think the overwhelming amount of despair and hopelessness that things like this are causing has made people super turned off by hustle culture.
"I would say that if I had to put a fine point on it, I think that the default position for most young people in America is distracted hopelessness. It's because even the people in our age range, let's say from 15 to 30, even the people who didn't pay much attention in high school or aren't paying much attention in high school, uh, they don't need to be super educated to see the reality that is in front of them and that awaits them."
So, does this mean everyone should just be hopeless and give up? Well, I don't think so. And keep in mind, I'm trying to be optimistic here, so take this all with a grain of salt. But I do think there are some positive takeaways from hustle culture. For example, I think working hard, so long as you were doing things with balance, moderation, and wisdom, is good. I've been very passionate about YouTube since I was a kid. So, while I was working almost full-time and going to college full-time, I decided to commit at least just a couple hours a day after work to studying YouTube and making videos. Every day, I got smarter, better, and worked hard until eventually it worked out. It took years, but I got there. And don't get me wrong, I'm not a very hard worker. I'm pretty lazy. But I am a firm believer in working smarter, not harder, which is the antithesis of hustle culture. But I will stand on that till I die.
And I also think this mindset can apply to anything, whether it be your fitness, your financial goals, your dream jobs, or just a hobby of yours. Find what you're passionate about or something you enjoy enough to do for work. And set small, attainable goals. By the way, this is going to be every course ever just summed up in a very simple way. But once you have your goals, build systems to achieve those goals and incrementally get better over time. Don't set some giant goal that you have no chance of achieving. Instead, do something like this.
The problem with hustle culture is it forgets what life is all about. 'Cause it isn't about just money and success. At least in my opinion, money and success are tools that allow you to live and spend time on what's important, like relationships or hobbies. So, while working hard is good, it's important to remember to do things in moderation and not sacrifice things that are ultimately more important.
And if you want to learn more about how to do this, check the link in the description and buy my course. That was a joke. If you like this video, you might like my video about a similar era that kind of coincides with hustle culture, and that is the rise and fall of NFTs. So, if you want to learn more about that and how so many people fell for it, consider clicking the video that's on screen right now.