It’s 10 pm. You’re still answering work calls, your inbox is exploding, and you don’t even remember how it got this bad. You’ve clocked nearly 12 hours, and your fourth cold brew is giving you heart palpitations instead of focus. All of this because someone once told you hustle equals success.
Sounds familiar?
For years, we’ve been trained to glorify endless work hours and constant availability, wearing burnout like a badge of honor. Hustle culture sells the idea that there’s always more to chase: more money, a bigger title, a shinier position. Even neon billboards screaming #RiseAndGrind, straight out of a 2014 Instagram hashtag, echo the same message: work harder, earn harder.
But what if that story was wrong? What if grinding your way to success is flawed, and the real winners aren’t the ones clocking the longest hours, but the ones working smarter?
F
Escaping the 24/7 Hustle Culture
The Rise of Slow Living
The Problem
The Toxic Hustle Trap
Hustle culture is addictive. It appears as LinkedIn posts applauding 70-hour workweeks or glorifying 5 a.m. starts like they’re personality traits. Millennials, born in the ’80s and ’90s, are the main victims, not to mention the Gen X, who started this trend in the first place. They navigated a pandemic, skyrocketing housing costs, and now AI-driven workplaces—often forcing side hustles just to survive.
The toxic 24/7 grind doesn’t just drain energy; it quietly wrecks health. Research links long work hours to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and other serious issues. Burnout isn’t ambition—it’s a warning.
How Gen Z is rewriting the rules
Like trends they’ve left behind, Gen Z is ditching hustle culture. They’re prioritizing what actually matters:
1. Competitive Pay With Real Benefits
They know hard work deserves more than a “great job!” email or an Employee of the Week certificate. Fair pay, benefits, and boundaries come first.
2. Flexible Work Hours
Output matters more than punching in. COVID proved most work can be done remotely, and Gen Z embraces flexibility over forced urgency.
3. Mental Health Support
They step back before burnout hits and ask for help without shame. Mental health isn’t optional—it’s essential.
The Shift to Slow Living
Slow living means exactly that: moving at a gentler pace, being mindful, and savoring life instead of rushing through it. The pandemic forced a pause, revealing that constant hustle isn’t heroic—it’s exhausting.
People are choosing time over titles, balance over inflated paychecks. Wealth isn’t just money—it’s control over your hours. Remote work proved you don’t need three-hour lunches or awkward networking to build meaningful connections. Thoughtful online interactions do the job faster and smarter.
The Real Flex
Rejecting toxic hustle culture doesn’t make Gen Z and millennials lazy—they’re strategic. A “Best Employee” certificate won’t pay rent or secure a future. Focusing on meaningful skills, intentional work, and owning your time might be the smartest career move yet.
Turns out, the real flex isn’t how long you work—it’s how well you live.
The Everyday Magician
Explore alternative career aspects
Three young boys, including Sumer, created the magic tricks and posted on YouTube, for hundreds to view and comment. They are under MITV head. The magics are performed by Sumer and Dylan, and filmed, composed and edited by Aneesh.
Engineer? Doctor? Or lawyer? Moms and dads are paranoid everyday about what you should be once your school gets over. Sumer Seth, a 17-year-old Canadian teenager thinks differently. He wants to be a magician!
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May 5, 2014
I think what really drew me into magic in the first place was its brilliant art.
The fact that it could not only show you something with such majesty, but bring to life an entirely new world filled with mystery, wonder, excitement, joy, and inspiration, all in one room.
Magic tricks, illusions, and 'cardistry' (Visual display of playing cards) have always been that way to me from when I was five years old, and I'm just as sure it's been the same for anyone who has experienced that power at a young age.
Adults can be just as amazed as children when it comes to seeing an effect, and that same thrill can be implemented across the room.
The qualities a magician should possess
Performer: The everyday magician isn't all black and white. Rather, he is a spectrum filled with many colors. With a wide variety of attitudes and emotions, you can say. He can be a charmer with a classy ego and wit, he can be a relaxed and gentle friend, a "clown-y" unsophisticated jester, the dark, serious, straight-forward spawn of Satan (as some would say), or even a nimrod with a bag of miracles up his sleeve
With controlled Multiple Personality Disorder: The everyday magician (mainly close-up artists) will respond to the attitude you have, and experiment with all the colors he brings. Truly a rare form of diversity or a controlled multiple personality disorder.
Connect to audience: Any magician who can connect and respond to his audience, rather than perform as if he knows nothing about having an emotion, aka operating like a complete robot, is most favorable in my opinion (or in anyone's opinion for that matter)
Mastery: His attitude and responses maybe favorable to audience's desire, however the one attribute he takes pride in is his skill. His mastery in the art of sleight-of-hand is a craft so very few people ever master; or in other words, to be able to make a switch without one's notice, or disclose an object so naturally, takes countless nights to perfect. This unique ability motivates him to strengthen his ego, and work harder towards perfection so he can achieve his goal. All till he is invincible.
The artists who inspired me
Dai Vernon, the man who fooled Houdini!
Being a close-up, sleight-of-hand artist/performer myself, my most recent and best inspiration to my work would be a man who calls himself Dai Vernon (Also referred to as "the professor"). His work has not only impacted so many of his audiences, but influenced the work of countless magicians like myself. Dai Vernon was also known as the man who fooled Harry Houdini himself!
The same trick he used to fool Houdini is the same trick every sleight-of-hand to this day has a variation on, and despite it's common knowledge, it still manages to dazzle audiences every time.
Tony Slydini, famous for his ‘One-Coin Routine’
Another inspiring artist to note in this craft is Tony Slydini. Once again, the combination of rhythm and showmanship which he brings forth in his "One Coin Routine" is fabulously demonstrated. Not like your TV magician
The everyday magician is not like the magician you see on TV. There is actually a much bigger difference between them than you notice. The TV magic-man only shows you what he wants you to see, whereas the one right in front of you will show you everything. No Camera Tricks. No Actors. No rules. It is all in how you see it that matters.
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