The pride in hustling and other truths you need to know

When someone says he or she is a ‘hustler’, it’s often with mixed pride. On one hand, there’s a feeling of self-reliance, and on the other, a feeling of limitations, that he or she is not all they wanted to be.

Could it be that ‘hustling’ is inevitable despite our feelings towards it? Man by nature is made to work, which not only gives us meaning and purpose in life but keeps us healthy both physically and psychologically. This belief is the basis of the Protestant work ethic.

The oldest men and women I find in the countryside love working on their small shambas and are often very welcoming to visitors. They take offense if you don’t greet them. How often do you greet your neighbour?

Somewhere along the way, we learn not to hustle. In school, we are taught to work hard so we can get white-collar jobs, to avoid ‘hustling’. Remember all your classmates who were very good in class? They probably got good jobs and never hustled till they realised they needed to make an extra coin.

The socio-economic system is also made in such a way that ‘hustling’ becomes a way of life. We are still a very informal society, no mass production of goods and services. Hustlers fill in the void: They will get you cars, repair your shoes, get you sukuma wiki and more.

The reality of economics also enhance hustling. While manufacturers and service providers focus on the bigger market, hustlers chunk the market into manageable pieces and focus on those smaller groups. They do that through hawkers, kiosks, supermarkets, brokers and other small-scale traders.

The services is the most interesting driver of hustling. For instance, you cannot mass shave our hair or mass plait it. While Mpesa is for the mass market, you need agents to bring it to the mwananchi. Kenya Breweries, Coca Cola or Bamburi are industrial producers but they need hustlers to serve small groups or even individuals and their needs. Even teachers and doctors have to pay attention to individuals.

Yet in our policies, schools and even conventional wisdom we behave as if hustling can be eliminated like polio or mosquitoes. The truth is that hustling will be with us for a long time to come. We better accept that reality and learn to respect hustlers, including political hustlers. Hustles are the seedbeds of great corporations. Even artificial intelligence is unlikely to kill hustling. Did computers not spawn a new class of hustlers?

[XN Iraki; [email protected]]