Welcome to the Anti-Hustle!

What if success was self-defined? What if passion and your profession veered off in two completely opposite directions?

Welcome to The Anti-Hustle. Here, you will meet people actively reclaiming success from the "always on" mentality that our modern society romanticizes. This newsletter has a simple purpose: to inspire you to find your own contentment, despite internal and external pressure to measure your worth by your career.

From the moment I reached my 20s, I remember being inundated with the sense that I needed to find the “right job” and that I wouldn't be happy until I found it. Come graduation day, it seemed like a switch went off and everyone I knew had plans to go to graduate school or had internships or the seedlings of their career already lined up. Was there a discussion or secret meeting I had missed? I felt like everyone had been handed a map and I was left figuring it out on my own. 

That’s me on the far right, blissfully and naively unaware of what was to come.

As the child of two self-employed parents, I saw how hard they worked and decided that if I ever tried to follow this path, I would struggle. I became convinced that a 9-5 office job was the only way to have a supportive profession. 

But the road to such a career seemed riddled with difficulties. What with my lack of self-confidence and inexperience, I applied to job after job and barely received a response. I felt as though I was throwing my resume down a deep, dark well, then calling out, “Hello?” only to hear my solitary voice, bouncing off the walls, echoing back at me. 

When I did get an interview, it felt like the worst kind of test with an unsaid message of, “Tell me why you’re worth a second of our company’s time.”  No matter how often I rehearsed my answers, the minute the spotlight was on me, I transformed from an extroverted, bubbly person into a stammering, nervous wreck. I never really felt like I "made it."

My other problem was that I consistently have had a wide range of interests. One minute I was considering an internship in publishing and the next, I was trying out a bar tending course. The idea that I had to settle down and commit to just one direction haunted me. I was afraid to lose different parts of myself and miss out. When I think about this, I often think of one of Cheryl’s Stray’s letters from her beautiful advice column, Dear Sugar, where she talks about thinking about alternative paths we could have taken as, “the ghost ship that didn’t carry us.”

While I was feeling all of this, I was also carrying around a weight of self-pity and weariness by the mere fact I could barely get a toe in the door, let alone a foot.

As I started to voice this and write about it publicly, people reached out and told me how much they felt heard. These small moments where I felt that connection, that sense of not being alone, spoke to me. It was becoming clearer that not everyone just picks a direction and heads toward it confidently. Some people pick a career, but in private, continue to romance the things that bring them joy, making them well-loved hobbies. The pressure to make a grand success out of your job isn't the only way to lead a fulfilling life. 

I began to wonder, what if my career is just one chapter and I have the ability to write multiple stories? This dandelion seed of an idea parachuted down, burrowing in my brain, until it became The Anti-Hustle. I wanted to seek out people who were not just chasing a career, but were also looking for that small spark that sneaks in while doing what they love after they have finished what they were “supposed” to be doing. I wanted to know why they decided to choose a hobby just for the pure contentment. What a strange concept in today’s world, right?

In the coming months, I hope you find this newsletter inspirational and that it makes you feel heard. I hope you feel like you can connect and feel uplifted. I hope that it helps you get a little closer to answering the questions you're struggling with. I hope you remember that we are all human sown with seeds of faults and talents. Just like the plants and trees that surround us and nourish us, we need to give back to one another so that we can all grow together.

Thank you in advance for reading. You can subscribe here and, please feel free to share your thoughts with me: