The Art of Hustling Harder, Hustling Smarter
“Go, Shorty, it’s your birthday” — haha, you already know who we’re going to talk about today, don’t you?
Yes, it’s “Mr. Get-Rich-Or-Die-Tryin” Curtis 50 Cent Jackson, the Interscope-signed gangsta rap artist who made history by releasing seven consecutive no.1 Billboard chart-busting hits in the 2000s.
But the journey from rags to riches hasn’t been easy for Jackson — and his NY Times best-selling book “Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter” sheds light on the struggles, personal losses, and other hardships that he went through in his personal life.
Well, good news! We just got our hands on Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter by 50 Cent Jackson, a self-help memoir of its kind, and this is what we think about it after the first read:
About The Book
Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter was originally written by Curtis Jackson and published by HarperCollins co.
The genre of the book can be described as a self-help memoir. Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter is divided into nine chapters: Finding fearlessness, Heart of a hustler, Constructing your crew, Knowing your value, Evolve or die, Power of perception, If we can’t be friends, Learning from your Ls, and The entitlement trap.
Altogether, it shows how to become a savvy and successful entrepreneur, using the internal struggles that led to 50 Cent’s rise to icon status as examples.
Our Take On Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter
The book is built on a “fear nothing, and you shall succeed” mantra, but that’s just the wave’s crest. It shows the true story of Curtis Jackson behind the curtain, which most of the world wasn’t aware of before.
Excuse the pun, but not many men were crowned as the Billboard top Rap Songs artist of the 2000s, pivoted their whole career path, and went on to become cable TV’s highest-paid executive — and that’s what makes Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson more than just another gangsta rap artist the world has seen.
Instead, Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter shows the hard-working, ambitious, entrepreneurial side of Curtis Jackson.
— “Wait a minute, 50 Cent and entrepreneurship?” Well, prepare to be surprised.
The book does a great job at highlighting the strategies he had chosen to remerge as a multi-platinum-selling rap artist and again make a comeback as a cable-TV series producer after his rap career went downhill.
His attempt to leave Interscope and make music independently backfired when his rap group G-Unit flopped disastrously. In the book, 50 Cent admits that he understood that other new-coming rappers could outperform him, flow and lyric-wise.
It also delves into other aspects of his personal life, including his failed marriage and spoiled relationship with his firstborn. Things took a worse toll when Jackson had to file for bankruptcy in 2015, as he was drowning in a debt of $23 million.
However, he bounced back from hitting rock bottom to becoming cable’s highest-paid executive with his TV series Power and For Life – and reading how he turned his life around is what has blown our minds.
Looking back on those dark days of struggle, failed entrepreneurial decisions, and losses, 50 Cent’s take on failure in the book is:
“Do not view failure as something you need to distance yourself from; try to embrace it instead. Wrap your hands around it and examine it. Believe that you can use it to rebuild your idea and take it to an even higher level than you’d originally conceived.”
Summing It Up
Our advice is, do not read this book as a window to your favorite gangsta rapper’s life before Billboard-charting, platinum-selling career success. Instead, see it as a complete 9-step guide to becoming an entrepreneur by someone who has seen both success and failure, and you’ll genuinely learn many lessons from the book.
Oh, and also, the book is a continuation of 50 Cent’s previous book, “From Pieces to Weight,” so we’d recommend you give that one a read too.