I really love that term, The “Hustle Muscle”. I really cannot take credit for that term, even though I would love to!! I have to give the number one props to the most ultimately  insane sales trainer on this entire planet …, Grant Cardone.

This guy is just friggin insane. I just love him. Yes, we and Grant have a bromance going. I have gone through and heard, with utter diligence and intensity,  his audiobook the 10X Rule. If you have not read or listen to this book, you need to. So I’m not surprised that he came with the term the “Hustle Muscle”.

That statement, made with the combination of jest and seriousness,  really made me think a lot. And the reason that it did was because he told or rather he was asked that if he lost absolutely everything, if the market tanked out and he just lost everything, how would you start over.

This is something that we all have in the deepest recesses of our minds.  This is something we know about, but that we bury, hoping it is something we never have to answer.

That’s when he said without batting an eye and flexing his biceps and with a look and stare that screamed of dominating confidence , he unwavering roar stated that he had the Hustle Muscle!

That statement struck deep inside of me. Most people today, including myself at times, have the proverbial peppermint pacifier. When trouble comes our way, we sometimes (or for most of us that would be always) look at who’s going to do what for us, not what we can do for ourselves.

Let me ask you that same question. What if you’re wiped out, what would you do? Depending on what you do for a living will probably frame your answer. Could you even start a business on a shoe string?

I don’t know if any of you recall the events of 2008. I certainly do. It was when life itself seems so fragile and everything you depended was no longer secure. Everyone was on edge, wondering if this ravenous disease, the Federal Reserve called “contagion” which devour what was left of their financial security

There were so many  layoffs everywhere. Companies and banks were shuttering at a record pace. Our entire way of life was at stake. You had people with master’s degrees and years of dedication at their profession, being laid off and not able to get the employment, in which they spent so much time and effort and got into tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, just to see their livelihood crushed under a stone.

People, distraught with the bottomless pit of hopelessness, after they had lost their career,  were taking their lives because they did not see a way out.

While doing the irreversible as the taking of your own life, one can see how you can get to that point when you realize that someone or something or some  force is pulling your strings and you truly realize that you’re not in control can be overwhelming.

So now the ridiculous and undeserving new norm is under employment. Doing something you were never trained for or don’t need to even be trained. Something you disdained so highly, but you now find yourself succumbed to it’s curse.  You don’t need training to serve hot dogs at a baseball game, but I guess it is a job.

That term “Hustle Muscle”, has really made me think very deeply about the issue if I lost it all, what would I do. Some of you may say, well if I lose my job I can just get another one. Well what happens if the profession you are in was apocalyptically decimated?

Or what about if the type of job you are doing uses outdated methods and technology and all of a sudden, someone the bright lights of the exit door?

This is where the development of a muscle more important than the peck or 6 pack abs. What I am referring to is the  “Hustle Muscle” which is the important muscle.

Ok.. you say, I get it because you are constantly repeating the importance of the “Hustle Muscle”. But you say, “What can I do”?. Believe me, I am also pondering deeply this question.

This is really making me think of the skill sets I need to either strengthen or develop. Maybe I don’t have them and I need to find out what they are.

The one skill set (or maybe two) that are as  recession proof as you are possibly able to get is the  knowledge of sales and having relationship skills.

Now we all have our opinions of what these superskills are.and what they mean to us individually.

When I mention that five letter curse word sales, some of you may say with a shaking clenched fist that, there is no way you could ever do that! You refuse to be a life form lower than the cockroach.

Well cockroach, what happens if you had nothing to eat? Would you still feel so vulnerable and naked and unwilling to go into a challenging area even if your own kids were hungry?

HELL NO, WE WON’T GO, HELL NO, WE WON’T GO

Even if you desperately hold on to that lie that you’ve never done sales before, what about job you have, or the jobs you had before?. Unless you were born under a lucky star and your Father was the hiring manager, then you needed to have sold yourself at that interview. Unless your marriage was arranged, you needed to have sold yourself to your wife or to your husband.

How do I know that you may ask? What makes me the prognosticator of all truth? Well you are married aren’t you. You had to sell yourself, even with all of your flaws which includes  your petrified underwear, rank socks and hairs everywhere!

So what makes it so that a person just cannot go and walk through a door and sell something?

If you didn’t have any money in your profession was destroyed, you is the only thing you would have left.

So my next question to you is, how well have you prepared yourself?

Do you have the “Hustle Muscle”?

Go Safely Home.

You can get a hold of me here.