Want to Reach Your Goals? Adopt and Embrace the Hustle Mentality.

Mario Andretti was someone who knew how to not just reach, but crush, his goals. A world
champion, Andretti is one of only two drivers to win races in each of the four major types of
racing: Formula One, IndyCar, World Sportscar Championship and NASCAR. Not only was he
a major winner, his career spanned decades. Andretti was the only person named United
States Driver of the Year in three separate decades with awards in 1967, 1978 and 1984.

How did Andretti achieve such amazing, long-term success? Here’s the secret in his own
words: “Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an
unrelenting pursuit of your goal -- a commitment to excellence -- that will enable you to
attain the success you seek.” In a few words, he was committed to the hustle mentality.

What is the hustle mentality? It’s a commitment to get ahead, no matter what, and never
give up when faced with insurmountable challenges. It’s a resourcefulness and creativity in
finding new methods of success. When you adopt and embrace the many facets of the hustle
mentality, you’ll set yourself up to succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

Hustle mindset: innovation and resourcefulness

Someone who is a hustler does not have to carry the full load themselves. As someone
with the hustle mentality, you make innovative and resourceful choices about how to work
smart, as well as hard. One aspect of this is that you become an expert in human psychology.
You understand how to exert your influence in just the right way, and you analyze the other
person’s reactions and how they feel about the situation. You’re able to use your influence
intelligently because you understand social dynamics and negotiation. It’s not about making
500 contacts, it about making 300 smart contacts.

Hustlers are also agile when it comes to their approach. It’s been said that no plan
survives contact with the enemy, and that’s especially true in business. When you embrace
the hustle mentality, you recognize you can’t possibly know what challenges will come
throughout a year. You plan to adopt resources to make changes, rather than planning as
though nothing will come up.

Finally, the hustle mindset is also about resourcefulness. Many entrepreneurs are
bootstrapping their companies, and those that aren’t have to make good use of the finances
they’ve raised from investors. Whether it’s about striking a deal to lower the price of a
needed service or working an alternate plan, resourcefulness is vital to reaching your goals.

Hustle action: put in the work

Gary Vaynerchuk wasn’t always a successful businessman with a huge online following. In
the beginning of his career, he marketed his business, Wine Library, locally. He describes
how he went door to door, handing out flyers to get exposure with local businesses. The
businesses he entered didn’t know who he was when he showed up, but by the time he left he
had made an impression. He hustled.

Putting in the hard work is a key attribute in mastering the hustle mentality. I personally
worked a ridiculous number of hours when starting and building my businesses. I’m not
alone in that feat. Great entrepreneurs work an average of 60 hours a week, with some
clocking much more than that.

Putting in the work helps you be ready to seize opportunity when it arises. Thomas
Jefferson is quoted as saying, “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work,
the more I have of it.” Never believe that others are successful because opportunity fell out
of the sky for them. They hustled. If you do, too, you’ll be ready for your “luck” when it
comes.

Hustle persistence: never quit

Successful entrepreneurs -- even Andretti -- weren’t born successful. They became that
way because they were ambitious and persistent. Oz Pearlman has been hustling with his
sleight of hand for two decades, but his current success on America’s Got Talent finally
earned him national attention. When asked his secrets of success, he lists asking for help
and never giving up as being vital steps.

Pearlman may not be in the traditional business arena, but his hustle is much the same as
a successful entrepreneur. He started out part time and made a goal to pitch one event
planner or hall per week. He focused on building rapport rather than selling up front, and he
really listened to the other person instead of thinking only about his pitch. Even then,
success wasn’t easy: it took more than 20 years to reach a national spotlight. But he never
quit.

Reaching your goals isn’t an easy or simple process. It’s about adopting and embracing the
hustle mentality through innovation, resourcefulness, doing the work and never quitting. Are
you willing to do what it takes?

20 Quotes to Help Motivate You to Hustle Like Never Before

Building great businesses, achieving massive goals and rising to the top of your profession
doesn't just happen by accident. It happens through a ridiculous work ethic and consistently
showing up every single day.

Here are 20 quotes to help motivate you to hustle like never before:

1. "You can't have a million-dollar dream with a minimum-wage work ethic." -- Stephen C.
Hogan

2. "When I was young, I observed that nine out of 10 things I did were failures. So I did
10 times more work." -- George Bernard Shaw

3. "If you have an idea of what you want to do in your future, you must go at it with
almost monastic obsession, be it music, the ballet or just a basic degree. You have to go at it
single-mindedly and let nothing get in your way." -- Henry Rollins

4. "Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of
you." -- William James

5. "Many people think they want things, but they don't really have the strength, the
discipline. They are weak. I believe that you get what you want if you want it badly enough." -
- Sophia Loren
 6. "Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret
of success." -- Swami Sivananda

7. "If a man is called a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo
painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep
streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and Earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great
street sweeper who did his job well.'" -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

8. "All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy,
selfish and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so
constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today." -- Pope Paul
VI

9. "Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the
successful one is a lot of hard work." -- Stephen King

10. "God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest." -- J.G. Holland

11. "Much good work is lost for the lack of a little more." -- Edward H. Harriman

12. "The difference between try and triumph is a little umph." -- Marvin Phillips (or
an unknown author)

13. "The person who is waiting for something to turn up might start with their shirt
sleeves." -- Garth Henrichs

14. "Those at the top of the mountain didn't fall there." -- Marcus Washling

15. "If you feel you are down on your luck, check the level of your effort." -- Robert
Brault

16. "You're either changing your life or you're not. No waiting for this or that or better
weather or other hurdles. Hurdles are the change." -- Terri Guillemets

17. "Be not afraid of going slowly. Be afraid only of standing still." -- Chinese proverb

18. "He who is outside his door has the hardest part of his journey behind him." -- Dutch
proverb

19. "I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It
will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near." -- Margaret Thatcher

20. "The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the
circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them." -- George Bernard Shaw

Read these quotes. Analyze these quotes. Most important, adopt these quotes into your
everyday life.

Something that has worked wonders for me over the years is to write at least one
really moving quote on a note card and carry it around with me everywhere I go. Whenever I
am feeling unmotivated or in a slump, I take a glance at this card and instantly get right back
on track again.