“Things may come to those who wait, but only those things left by those who hustle.” — Ken Griffin, re: Abraham Lincoln

What a privilege it is to hustle. It’s a gift.

Last month I wrote about New York’s cultural high. The vibes this past month have been a bit more chaotic. Two weeks into my stay at Network School, we received word that immigration officials were coming to check passports. Over the course of the next week, we heard many things: we’re getting a slap on the wrist…we’re in the clear…and, finally, we’re being shut down. Whether you call it xenophobia, antisemitism, or a case of bad luck, whatever happened is a stark example that hatred and fear can destroy something good. A community of 504 residents, including families, entrepreneurs, and top technical talent, disbanded in one day. A peaceful society, years in the making, bringing life to an otherwise vacant ghost city, gone. And while NS will be fine and move to another location, the speed and illogicality of it are concerning.

Worse, it isn’t isolated. Global tensions continue to escalate: Russia and Ukraine, the Middle East, even Indonesia banning a morning run club. The scales differ. Conflicts persist.

Yet vibes are still high. But now with more nuance. I’ve realized three things.

1. We’re all on the same side of the table.

The worst thing in a negotiation is for your counterpart to feel that your win is their loss. This easily escalates to where they’d hurt themselves if only to spite you. Instead you want to sit on the same side of the table. To help them see why this would be a good decision for them. The tragedy is that we are all on the same side of the table whether we realize it or not. Right now, as we speak, we have an army of 8.3 billion collaborators who, ideally, are trying to make our world a better place.

Recently, I was deciding whether to hire or just buy software. Whether I was paying for someone’s healthcare directly or indirectly, I realized the world was conspiring to help me achieve my goals. The software existing at all meant a team somewhere had imagined someone like me and decided to help. Their product powers mine, mine powers my customers’, and the money flows back so everyone keeps building. Every transaction, another brick in the road to a better future.

Even across cultures, we are more similar than we are different. At Network School, there was a Russian standup comedian who could do comedy in five languages. I asked him what language he was funniest in. He said Indonesian bahasa. I took his word for it.

More seriously, I asked what differences he sees across people by conversing with them in their natural language. His response: the similarities. People are people. The enemy isn’t another people but those who choose to point and decry the success of others, under any flag.

2. Success doesn’t care what side of the motorbike you’re on.

On the back of a $1 Indonesian motorbike ride, it’s impossible not to wonder. Why am I in the passenger seat and not the driver’s? Why was I born in the most prosperous country, where the poorest people are still affluent in global terms? Where thousands are trying to enter instead of escape?

Success is resourcefulness contextualized. Given all the resources at your disposal, what did you create with them? It’s a heavily time-contingent metric. When Ben Franklin flew a kite with a key on it, lightning was still an unknown. He proved it was electricity, invented the lightning rod, and fought pushback from clergy who insisted lightning was divine intervention, even as it kept striking the tallest structures in town, their church spires. Don’t you think that same man, born in 2026 instead of 1706, would find a new kite to fly and a new rod to invent?

Similarly, everything we accomplish will likely seem obvious and straightforward to someone living in 2226. They’ll have technologies we can’t imagine, diseases solved, and, by comparison, we’ll all be living horribly impoverished lives. Yet those who can summon their resources to create something great will still be lauded. And while we shouldn’t live to be respected in 200 years, it offers perspective on what meaningful work looks like. We don’t get to choose where we start. We only get the opportunity not to end there.

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” — TR.

Hustle.

3. And boy, isn’t it a great time to hustle.

Most of human history has been characterized by stagnation, a zero-sum existence where my gain is your loss and vice versa. Yet we’ve miraculously broken out of this game with the power of technology. Marc Andreessen said that the general idea behind a16z is that, on the whole, technology is a good thing, “and it’s crazy that’s a controversial statement.” Even the existence of an asset class as risky as venture capital is a testament to technology’s disruptive force. And wherever there’s disruption, there’s opportunity: in war, in diaspora, in artificial intelligence. For so long, institutions and reality impeded everyone’s ability to hustle.

Looking back, every other time was a worse time. Born to the wrong caste: pretty hard. Born into generational slavery: rough. Born to the wrong layer of feudal Europe: real barriers to your success. Yet technology allows positive-sum games. If digital nomads can live around the world while working in the US, if Gazans can day trade, if a smartphone or a video can permanently better your life and the life of your descendants, maybe we’ll start to realize our own good fortune. We are all on the same side of the table. Trying to make a better, faster, safer world, whether we know it or not.

People ask, “What would you do if you won the lottery?” I ask: what if we already won the lottery and didn’t know it? What if all the hardships and limitations of our reality are opportunities and challenges to overcome?

This is not to say that hustle is a requirement, a responsibility, or a duty. But wow, what a gift it is.

No matter what seat you’re on, we’re all driving in the same direction.

Blessed are those who hustle.

#hustle