Why ‘A Winner Never Quits’ is Toxic Hustle Culture – Time to Redefine Success and Prioritize Mental Health

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There’s a chapter in the book Think Like A Freak, by authors Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner, called The Upside Of Quitting. And it talks about how, from childhood, we’re all culturally brainwashed on the negatives of quitting.

Our culture values hard work. We’re peppered with quotes and slogans that claim that quitting is for losers. People who not always in the “Go” mode are labeled as lazy and slacking.

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As a result, only we humans intentionally deprive ourselves of pleasure, family time, sleep, and so many more things for working hard on our goals. But, is there anything wrong about dreaming big and aspiring for great things? Absolutely not. The problem comes when we take this “hustle” too far at the expense of our physical and mental wellbeing.

This go-getter mentality has led to a burnout epidemic in our lives. And it’s more visible in the lives of women in workplaces these days and there must be something done sooner than later.

As more and more women climb up the corporate ladder, the attitude that somehow “we can have it all” has taken shape. Call it the lean in culture or the girl boss culture, women at work must be showing a no holds barred attitude. But, in the process of not slowing down, they’re risking their future.

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Downtime is essential to recharge and recalibrate where we are in life with any given situation or project. There are so many benefits of spending time in silence of having our brains on default mode.

In reality, we fear downtime or abandoning projects midway is because of the fear of losing all that we have invested in so far. And that’s exactly the sunk cost fallacy. This is when you’ve already invested so much time, emotion or effort in something, that it becomes difficult to abandon it, even though you should.

Instead of worrying about our sunk costs or opportunity costs (the loss we experience from picking one alternative over another), how about we embrace the fact that failure is the key for innovation and growth to happen. The book recommends failing fast and cheap when we see that things are not going our way on our path to our goal.

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At the end, what really matters is our intention with our goals. Real life has no ending unless it’s the ultimate truth, death. So, until then, we can keep going, keep discovering and keep reinventing our dreams and destinations.

So, you may ask, will this attitude make us complacent or ungrateful for what we have? Absolutely not. In fact, you are going to be open to the unlimited possibilities that life has to offer; instead of wearing horse blinders for just one outcome – that might, in the end, only have a 50% chance of working out in your favor.

Finally, remember this cold hard truth. “I wish I had worked harder.” No one said ever on their death bed. Stop hustling. Start living.

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