Making bricks without straw............

This article is about burnout. If you are a high performance person (most Hustlers are) then you work while you are at work. You feel great when the company achieves and exceeds the goals set each year. If anyone on the team drops the ball, they know you'll pick it up.

This drive and effort often lands people with this hustle mentality in positions of increasing responsibility. This is where trouble can begin. Once it's clear that you will work extremely hard without regard to compensation or recognition, you are playing a suckers game. At some point doing the impossible will become part of your job performance goals and when you fall short you'll begin to receive raises very much like those of coworkers who are just punching the clock.

You are now at a crossroads.........

-You can keeping doing what you have been and likely burnout.
-You can move to another company and start the same process over (many people are successful using this tactic).
-Another solution is leveling down to match the effort of the "average" worker (who will be there long after those taking the previous options).

Or, you can take the prize behind door number 4............. Jump off the train and run for your life. This is not an easy choice, for many of us it was not a choice at all - we got pushed off :-)

Deciding to become a small business owner, consultant, or commissioned sales person has risks the water cooler crowd find unacceptable, but it's the only way a hustler can stay true to his nature and succeed. The only way to win is to play a different game, one that will challenge your spirit every day while allowing you to reap the rewards. Lovers love, teachers teach and hustlers hustle.  Don't change yourself..... change the game.