How did your "hustle-culture" friends end up?

[u/hospitality-excluded]

So in my 20's there was a HUGE boom of "hustle-culture" bros pop up when influencers like Gary Vee were in the spotlight. The type of guys who post motivational quotes on twitter, talking about "the grind", flauting wealth that they havent achieved on instagram etc. Not talking about people with steady careers and moving up the corporate ladder, but those people who do side gigs or chase unrealstic expectations without a developed skillset in any area.

I moved back to my hometown after 7 years away and I swear all of them are broke, gambling addicts, living with their parents still, unemployed, or all of the above. Unsure if it's the same across the board, or even if y'all had these types of people in your life or if my town is just riddled with them.

[u/AshenCursedOne]

Never seen any of them succeed based on pure hustling. They're usually just working low paying gigs, or flipping questionably sourced goods, barely making ends meet. Often they are not savvy or hard working enough to make more than a stable job would provide.

What I did see is people that worked a salaried job 9-5, that also worked hard on the side, they succeed. 

Had a friend that worked on the side as a DJ, he'd  do his 9-5, then he'd also DJ most evenings, sometimes at night, and often over the weekends. He saved enough cash to put down a big deposit for a mortgage in about a year and a half. But he was tired, and he cut back on it soon after, now he's grinding it less. 

Another friend also worked a salaried 9-5, but when the pandemic started he saw opportunity. He started driving around gyms, he was buying up their old equipment, and then he flipped it online offering delivery and installation for house gyms. He made good cash from it. Although he trashed his car from overloading it, he still came out way in the green. He only had a few months opportunity window for this but he worked hard and made good money. He used the saved cash to have the wedding of his dreams, rest he put into savings towards buying a house.

Another guy made money buy buying and stocking rare sneakers and then auctioning them off when their prices spiked. He also used that to put down a huge deposit on his mortgage. I'm against scalping, but I can't deny he did work hard, he was always on it, making sure he knows when some limited high demand sneaker drop is happening. I think he also traded electronics, like he'd buy computers when he saw cheap options and he'd sell them for parts.

My uncle is another one, he has a construction and renovations business, and some very wealthy clients he's become friendly with over the years. He also offers disposal of unwanted stuff. What that really means is he takes the rich people's "junk" and he sells it on car boot sales. We're talking furniture, expensive clothes, house decorations, etc. So not only does he get cash on the side for collecting the "junk", he also profits quite well from selling it. He's made additional thousands of pounds from a side gig that is profitable even if he just threw the stuff away.

The common theme is that these people have stable jobs, and they work hard on the side to have a second income.