In the Game of Life, Hustling is Your Strongest Move

by Roger B. Rueda

Let’s dispense with the sugarcoating, shall we? Life is not some whimsical Disney fairy tale where butterflies flit about like they’re auditioning for Bambi 2. No, life is a brutal coliseum where the lazy are trampled faster than you can say “procrastination.” In this merciless arena, hustling isn’t just a lifestyle choice—it’s your Excalibur, your grenade launcher, and your last packet of instant noodles during a midnight existential crisis.

To hustle means to defy inertia. It means waking up every morning with a fire in your belly that not even the strongest black coffee can rival. It is to labor, to persevere, and to outwit circumstances, no matter how bleak. Hustling is the art of making things happen when all the odds are against you, when the world conspires to see you fail. And let me be brutally frank – if you are not hustling, you are rusting.

The hustler does not wait for opportunities to fall from the sky like manna from heaven. No! The hustler creates opportunities, even when they do not exist. He kicks down doors that are stubbornly closed, dismantles walls that block his path, and if need be, builds his own empire brick by backbreaking brick.

To hustle is to refuse mediocrity, that insidious disease that turns dreams into dust. Hustling isn’t merely about ambition; it’s about having the sheer nerve—the kapal ng mukha—to chase that ambition with the tenacity of a teleserye villain who just won’t die. It’s about boldly declaring, “Over my dead body!” even when failure is lurking like a nosy neighbor peeking through the curtains, waiting for you to slip.

Let me make this crystal clear—hustling is not a euphemism for swindling, scamming, or pulling off a budol-budol scheme. The true hustler does not clamber up the ladder of success by stomping on others like a deranged contestant in a high heels marathon. No, the genuine hustler rises through sheer sipag and diskarte, powered by a brain sharper than your tsismosa neighbor’s tongue and a spirit more unbreakable than your Wi-Fi during a storm.

In the grand chessboard of life, hustling is your queen—swift, lethal, and absolutely non-negotiable. Without it, you’re just a pawn praying not to get sacrificed before lunchtime. It is the move that keeps you ahead, the strategy that outwits your opponents. So, my dear friends, hustle hard, hustle smart, and most of all, hustle with integrity. Because in this relentless game of life, hustling is, and will always be, your strongest move.