Hunger and Hustle

 

We’re officially 15 months into our coaching enterprise, AYM High Consultants. It’s been quite a ride so far! Our client list continues to grow, and with it our advocates, five-star reviews, recommendations, and interest. We’ve far exceeded our initial goals and expected timeline and have worked with clients from coast to coast and many places in-between on Zoom coaching calls, at training weekends at our headquarters and training facility, and on a number of onsite visits at clients’ businesses across the country. We’ve presented and tabled at many conferences, summits, and expos and even hosted a sold-out event of our own. Indeed, our first 15 months of this venture have been very full…and we are so very grateful.

One thing that has stood out to us among our many outstanding, superstar clients is the absolute need of two things: hunger and hustle. You need at least one of those to really be successful in business, and to make your investment in working with a coach have an incredible return. Without one or both of these things, no amount of coaching or just plain luck will be able to sustain a business very long.

Hunger is a need. It’s a driving force that moves you to do whatever you need to do because you simply must make it work. Hunger is having a personal investment in your business, a family that is depending on you to be successful, and/or something to prove. Hunger can’t be taught; it can’t be given or bought. Hunger is one of those things that either you have or you don’t.

Most of our clients are hungry. It’s a very common trait among entrepreneurs. And when we started our own businesses, we were hungry too. We had to do it. We were driven to do it because of our hunger.

Most of our clients are hustlers. They don’t just work hard, but they work smart. They know where to spend their energy, acknowledge the things they don’t know and need help with, and understand that they can’t do it all themselves and must build a team around them using our colleague Steve’s “Who’s on Your Bus?” philosophy of finding the right people for the right positions.

What is detrimental to a business is the lack of either hunger or hustle. We’ve had a handful of clients in this spot, and unfortunately without those drivers they’re just not going to soar as high as those who possess those qualities. Some are just doing it because they felt obligated by family, were put in a position of business ownership because of an inheritance, or are just going through the motions because they don’t know what else to do.

Without hunger or hustle in the fuel tank, many people just coast. They sometimes make enough to cover expenses, but aren’t pushing harder to build a nest egg or build a business that will be attractive to sell one day. They don’t go the extra mile. They don’t close up shop and then go out and seek new clients. They don’t attend networking events. They don’t look for bigger contracts or dream about what could be possible if they just put in a little more energy. Instead, they simply exist. They survive, sometimes, but often don’t make it in the long run. No amount of coaching, teaching, training, or encouragement seems to get them to put in that extra oomph that separates the good from the great.

We’re so grateful that the majority of our clients are hustlers and many too are hungry. They have an inner drive and something to prove that they work their tails off…smartly. They don’t spin their wheels on things that don’t matter, but they find the right people and put them in the right positions so that they can spend their time working on the business instead of working in the business. They know the value of having a coach and they take that coaching seriously, understanding it's an investment that can have incredible return…if they do the work.

We’ve learned, as coaches, to seek those types of clients. Because demand has been so great for our services, we’re now much more careful of the clients we take on. We screen them just as much as they screen us to make sure we’re a good match and that they’re the types of hungry, hustling people who are indeed coachable and ready to dig in and really soar.

We’ve worked with many types of clients these last 15 months, and in many years of coaching pro bono before we officially launched AYM High, and we’re so grateful for the majority who have made us so proud with their hunger and hustle and the abundance that that creates in return.

#AYMHigh #LetsSoar

 

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Fahim Mojawalla is the Motivation and Mission Lead at AYM High Consultants. He loves what he does and would love to show you how to make 21st century sales and marketing easy, simply by being authentic, appreciative, respectful, responsive, empathetic, collaborative, and all-around awesome. Along with his wife Seema, he is an effervescent co-owner of Island Ship Center, the Spa of Shipping. #FahimFix

 

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Marty Johnson is the Communication and Vision Coach at AYM High Consultants, a columnist, and an editor, producing the mail and business center industry's leading magazine, MBC Today. In 2023, he sold his popular and growing brand, Uncle Marty’s Shipping Office, and retired from shopkeeper life to focus on writing and coaching. Subscribe to his Ask Uncle Marty™ newsletter and read more at askunclemarty.com; follow him on socials @askunclemarty. #AskUncleMarty

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Article co-published on aymhigh.com and askunclemarty.com on March 6, 2025.