BARS! For Business: The Hustle. The Focus. The Culture.

If you are looking for inspiration on how to hustle and succeed, no one can get you there faster than one of hip-hop’s most influential rappers, Jay-Z. With bars that are notorious for their resonance, Jay-Z’s lyrics help inform ideals of success in season two, episode 4 of my podcast, BARS! For Business.

For this episode, I was lucky enough to have two close friends and incredible business people join me in conversation. Jasmine Crowe, CEO of Goodr, a technology based company intent on reducing food waste and fighting hunger, and Ryan Wilson, CEO of The Gathering Spot, a membership based club that focuses on community and collaboration, share how music shaped their concepts of success, both personally and professionally. Here’s the breakdown of what we uncovered:

Never Stop the Hustle

Jasmine threw us right into it by spitting Jay-Z’s line “I sell ice in the winter / I sell fire in hell / I’m a hustler baby / I’ll sell water to a well.” If you know me, then you know that one of the tenants I live by is that the hustle never stops. If you want to be successful, you cannot get comfortable.

Ryan and Jasmine strongly urge thinking about success in terms of an NBA finals series; if you spend too much time reveling in the shot you made, you may miss the opportunity to make another. Ryan believes that you can enjoy the moment, but you must keep in mind that the game is still currently in progress. To keep the hustle, you have to stay hungry.

As Ryan and Jasmine walked me through their journeys in founding their own businesses, I was reminded that the road from broke to successful is a bumpy one. Ryan acknowledges that we cannot assume consistency in achievement. The present does not always foretell the future. Success requires precise effort, so we must seize every opportunity to make significant changes.

Don’t Focus on the Image, Focus on the Win

The bar that Ryan references most, both for himself and for his team, is Little Brother’s “Do you really want to win or look good losing?” He makes the amazing point that we get so caught up in our image these days that we forget what our end goals are.