The untimely death of rap star and entrepreneur Nipsey Hussle, may be the millennial generation’s Tupac moment. The 33 year old, whose real name was Ermias Asghedom impacted many lives across the world. Rose from the hard streets of LA, to building a brand that serve as a platform to fight injustice. Nipsey Hussle saw the value of entrepreneurship and legacy wealth building as a way of empowering the black community. Echoing the principles of cultural paragons, Nipsey Hussle has quietly forged a path to ownership of his brand, within a culture slowly understanding the importance of owning its billion-dollar influence. Wrapping his visions around “life is like running a marathon” concept, that will continue in the minds of most, forever.
When you think about running a marathon and business might not seem related, but this couldn’t be any further from the truth. Running a business and running a marathon are oddly similar. After all, you need the same grit, the same dedication, and an unwavering commitment to your goals, even when the going gets tough (and it will). Applying Hussle’s same principles of running a business to running a marathon will not only help you get across the finish line. But you’ll end up even more mentally fit than before. Read on to find out exactly why running a business and a marathon is more alike than you think and how that can work in your favour.
1. Set a Plan
The most important part of taking on a marathon is knowing how you’ll get from day one to the finish line. Unless you’re a competitive athlete, you don’t just decide to do a full marathon the next day. There’s training, strategizing, and mentally preparing involved. Just like running a business takes a careful, strategic business plan that outlines where you are and where you’re going, running a marathon means you have to outline a step-by-step plan that helps you achieve bigger and bigger and goals until you’re ready to run the main event (or your business runs on its own).
2. Stay Disciplined
Running anything takes discipline and focus. If you don’t have discipline running a business, it will fail, it’s as simple as that. If you don’t have discipline with preparing for and running your marathon, you risk injury, failure to complete and wasting months of training. It’s not easy to set out to run 42 kilometers or to start and run a business from scratch: for both, you need patience, determination, and stamina to get through the hard times and the infamous wall that hits you somewhere around three quarters of the way through.
3. Pace Yourself
Pacing yourself is absolute key for pretty much anything new you try. A new business is thrilling, and understandably so. So many of my clients want things to happen over night, and they poured your heart and soul (and a heck of a lot of time and money) into it, so it makes sense that you want to be there day and night to make sure nothing possibly goes wrong. But sooner or later (probably sooner) you’re going to burn out. The same principle applies to running a marathon: as much as you may want to, you can’t overtrain or you’ll likely get an injury before you even get a shot at the actual race. Sticking to a predetermined plan and not overexerting yourself isn’t just smart, it’s your best bet to knocking your goals out of the park.
There will be ups. There will be downs, but you must maintain composure and be your best for yourself and others. Reputation always proceeds the person who built it, keep your face clean. - Nipsey Hussle
Following these three principles has put Nipsey Hussle in position to enjoy a moment he's been working toward for over a decade. Recently, he signed a partnership deal with Atlantic Records and his own imprint, All Money In. Nipsey Hussle is the definition of his last name, and yet another example of what it means to make yourself the business.
The Marathon Continues!