In our town, you're either known as a talker or a hustler.
Talkers are the ones who have grand plans and spend hours in meetings figuring out what to do and getting "buy in". They're the ones getting everyone "on the same page" without actually creating something tangible.
Hustlers are the ones who think talk is cheap. They are the ones on the ground, getting it done. They are people of action and initiative. They're the dreamers who aren't satisfied just dreaming, they do, too.
In our town, you want to be known as a hustler not a talker, in my humble opinion. In Detroit, talk is cheap. Real Detroiters actually make things and make things happen. It's in our DNA.
I'd propose however, that there's one more category - thinkers. Thinkers are the ones who figure out the best way to go about doing something, so that the work actually results in something. It feels like a waste of time, but it's really an investment of time.
Thinking is a slow process, but when done well it allows teams to move much faster in the long run.
What's difficult for us thinker types is convincing people that thinking isn't a waste of time. Because for straight hustlers, thinking feels a lot like talking. It's on us to make thinking action-oriented instead of passive.
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