I'm a hustler and always have been since the day I popped out of my Mom’s womb. Since I was young, I've always been able to talk my way out of sticky situations and sell my idea or product. This has continued throughout my entire life, and I'm happy to say hustling still works.
When I graduated high school, the first thing I did was enthrall myself with the music of the Grateful Dead and then the band Phish. More so with Phish as I began to love the band and the surrounding environment which was filled with hustlers and kind spirits. From 1997 till 2012 I've seen the band Phish more than 100 times. I traveled with one partner or often by myself joining the tour penniless and then ending the trip with thousands of dollars.
The first thing people think is that a Phish head like myself would hustle drugs to make money on the road. Traveling from state to state following a band is not cheap, and drugs are not the only wares you can sell. The funny thing is I did fairly well selling grilled cheese. Yes, you can make a killing off selling grilled cheese on tour to hungry and stoned wookies in the lot before and mostly after the show. As well as flipping bread and cheese to my fellow Phish heads I was always able to talk myself into a good deal. It could've been a ride from Pittsburgh all the way to Alpine Valley Wisconsin or even talking a beautiful dreaded girl into being my companion.
As I grew older and moved into a steady rat race job, I still hustled. I did things on the side that would always produce wealth and funds when I needed it. Roughly around 2011, I found out about Ron Paul and Libertarianism and began hustling through preaching. As a graphic designer, I made thousands of liberty-themed memes and shared them across a growing network of friends. Typically I would do all of this hustling for free and I shared my memes so my name would get noticed. After continuing down the road of Libertarianism, I had found my ideology was slowly turning to anarchism.
When I progressed to the anarchist philosophy, I kept up my hustle and bustle by continuing to preach to others and showing anarchy through the visuals I created. Like Lil Wayne in 2007 I gave everything in my soul away for free. And like the rapper did that year I positioned myself with everything and everyone I could think of, to the point where people remembered the name, Jamie Redman. In the end, I didn't sell a million copies of my album in one week like Wayne did but produced a significant network that truly has paid off. Then I found Bitcoin.
“Flow sick so sick need a doc, yes, A creature, monster like the Loch Ness, I get hotter by the tock before I sizzle to death I just tell the clock, "Gimme a sec!" In the middle of the war where my enemy at”
When I first discovered Bitcoin, I was a little leery of the concept because I was bent on the gold standard and hoarding precious metals. However, in time after researching night after night on this strange decentralized concept, I fell in love. I had found a way to hustle in a counter economic fashion that would someday end the state. The nation states are malicious entities who have monopolized our lives, our privacy, and our wealth. Through the foundations of Agorism, I had discovered that Bitcoin was a great tool for stabbing the beast where it counts. By not using their money.
After a year I began constantly writing about the decentralized money and how it was a tool that would serve the ultimate counter economic purpose. I was always an artist and a writer my whole life but suddenly words had poured out of my head like water and I couldn't stop the flow and I still cannot. Luckily the flow has never stopped, and I've been able to write hundreds upon hundreds of articles that reference Bitcoin, decentralized technologies, peer-to-peer applications, and open source protocols. I had found my ultimate hustle.
Since this time I quit my day job as a carpenter and now write and do graphic work every single day. There's never a day that goes by that I haven't been able to work. The best thing about what I do is the fact that I love my job, and I can still hustle to my heart's desire. I don't sell grilled cheese anymore, and I don't have to bang nails and work in intense heat or extreme cold. I write on a computer from home and have been able to support my family of four with my words. To add to this my wife doesn't work, and we homeschool our children. The ultimate hustle.
“I was taught a month ago to bide my time and take it slow, then I learned just yesterday
to rush and never waste the day, I'm convinced the whole day long, that all I learn is always wrong and things are true that I forget, but no one taught that to me yet”
Often times people don't understand what I do when I tell them I'm a reporter who writes about cryptocurrency every day, and I also get paid in Bitcoin. It's very hard for the 9-5er who is stuck in the rat race to understand. But what's important to note is, all I do is hustle just like them, and I hustle hard. The truth is anyone can do it if they put their mind to it and life can be hustled easily once you learn the rules of the game.
Thousands of people see my work on a daily basis, and I am thankful for my network I worked hard to create. I look forward to the hustle years from now when I'm an old man flipping some sort of story or product because I will never stop.
The moral of the story is with great ambition, great things will come your way and forgetting about the judgments of others is the best way to free yourself from the rat race. Keep hustling, give away your product for free, network and ultimately break the corruption surrounding your life and eventually others will emulate this behavior.
** Quoted Lyrics from Lil Wayne and The Band Phish
This will fuel your burning desire more. Nice piece.
Thank you. :)
The Anarchist Phish Steemit community grows!
Hell Yeah @derekareith.
I upvote U
You are a hustler bro :) I see your early morning articles and sometimes think, man Jamie is up already and wrote an article. Everytime I see that, I know you love what you are doing. Keep up the good work. You do a lot for freedom, crypto, and Bitcoin my friend and many of us are thankful for what you do.
Thank you very much, I appreciate you notice my hustle. Cheers my friend.
Sometimes it gets overwhelming but content creators never get a chance to rest! Thank goodness I have a wife with almost as much fire in her belly as me. Keep it up Jamie! I hope you are coming to the LABitConf in Buenos Aires in November.
I like your entrepreneurial spirit that enabled you to fill the need for hungry phish fans with grilled cheese. I would never have thought of that myself, but creativity and a keen eye leads to a wealth of opportunities (and also a small amount of wealth for you). Not knowing much about phish, I stereotypically thought that people were mostly only drug users, but I was encouraged to find that from the over 100 concerts you have been to, that there a lot of great kind people there. Drugs are sure to be a major draw at the concerts, but I can look past that when people have more to offer to society and be generally kind gentle people. I think people have the right to put whatever they want into their bodies as long as it does not endanger others. But that's not something everyone agrees with. I enjoyed your articles, and you used a great title that drew me in.
I've been telling quite a few people this, but to make the pictures aesthetically pleasing, you can put <center'> tages around the image to center it (without the apostrophe) so it would look like this
<center'> image url </center'> (again without 's) this also works for centering text or youtube videos. Just a little tip for you. (you can actually edit the article and put those centering tags around it to make sure you understand how it works).
Hope to see more great articles from you!
I'm happy my title drew you in, and very I'm glad I changed your view towards Phish fans. Thanks for the feedback. Appreciate it a great deal. Cheers.
One of the things I really love about steemit is the ability to share without the fear that people will find you strange or different. It's a very welcoming community and the more honest and open you are, and the more you bare you soul and allow yourself to be vulnerable, the more respect people tend to show. Keep it up!
Great post @jamiecrypto, Hearing your story made me smile. I feel I have some things in common with you. I'm one of the few Phish fans in Australia and been a carpenter for most my life. Currently though I spend most my time in front of the computer trading alt coins and selling/hustlin vintage designer chairs, www.20cc.com.au . Writing is not my strong point though :).
I spent 1998 in Canada and I met a fantastic bunch of guys in Banff, they followed Phish religiously like you. I bet they have had one your cheese sangers. We hired an RV and drove from Banff to The Gorge and then another trip to Worcester from Antigonish N.S. to see Phish sets. Was awesome times. Anyway thought id say hello fellow Phish head. Cheers Mick.
I miss Phish tour it has been a while, and I was unable to attend a show this year, hopefully, during the fall or the end of the year they will come my way, and Ill catch another show. Thanks for the feedback. Cheers.
Great story and welcome! Grilled cheeses are vastly underrated ...Keep hustlin' and look forward to reading more in the future!
KEEP HUSTLING!!
Thank you for the article. Everything is painted in detail!
Keep that hustle up, "nothing works unless YOU DO"
Peace
Wealtcome Jamie, You are the Best Crypto Best Blogger I have learned, so much from you, Thank You!
Thanks so much.
@jamiecrypto We must be related brotha!
Keep on Hustlin'
A five-star story all the way. Inspirational. 👊
Welcome/
This is amazing man. I just searched Phish Waste because I wasn't sure if I had posted that song before for open mic and I came across this article. So glad I did! Keep hustlin' man, you got a new follower if you are still active around here! Gonna check your page now...