Alex Honnold - The Hustle is the Dream
- Aug 3
- 3 min read
As I sit here, roughly two years from leaving my first job out of college to chase a dream of becoming a writer and storyteller, that dream still remains off in the distance. I'm hustling, working, and loving every part of it, but the vision, the dream, the thoughts of it all, of it being a full-time, full-supplying thing, are still out of grasp.
But maybe, just maybe, that's a beautiful thing. Maybe it's the best thing. Maybe it's the thing we actually desire without realizing it.
Alex Honnold, widely regarded as one of the greatest climbers of all time and the first man to free solo El Capitan, spent the ages of 19 to 30 living out of a van, scraping by on just a few hundred dollars a month while pursuing a career in climbing.
But what's interesting, what's fascinating, is when he was asked about those early days, those hard days when he was trying to make it, he explained that he would love to go back to the very beginning:
"I would do that again. I loved it so much. I often think I'd be so happy to just start over from zero.”
To live in a van, mostly by yourself for a decade, to live off a few hundred bucks a month, to wonder if this thing would ever turn into something, and you'd want to go back? Would he even "love" to go back?
Is that foolish? Is he crazy? Has he lost his mind?
But maybe underneath it all, he's offering us an insight and lesson that we fail to miss: the chase is more enjoyable than the rewards, the hustle is more exciting than what's on the other side.
The great rapper Eminem shared a similar belief.
In a conversation with Anderson Cooper, he explained that despite having everything he could dream of—all the money, all the success, all the awards—there was still a desire to go back to the early days.
"There’s something about those days that was special…Being young and not knowing what exactly was going to happen and the thrill of the chase almost made it fun."
As I myself am still in these "early days," I remind myself that this is the dream. The chase is the best it gets, because the thrill of the ride will outweigh the rewards at the summit. Because anticipation is always better than attainment.
And when you do get there, and when you get the things you get—stability, maybe some more money or praise, maybe self-satisfaction—while those things are great, there’s one thing you will never get again, and that’s the thrill of the ride.
The uncertainty of whether it will work out.
The doubts and fears going through your head.
The long days, but also those fun days.
Because it’s only those things that make the end valuable and meaningful, and if that’s the case, the true dream is not the outcome, but the hustle.
Never forget that.
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Thanks for reading.
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If you're interested more in Alex Honnold or Eminem, I've done two epsiodes on them as well.
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