I kept wondering why? What made them different? Looking at the men of the 100, the men in my family and the community, the only difference I could find was that all the men of the 100 went to college and none of the men in my family or community that I knew ever did. That is when I realized there had to be something valuable to this college stuff, and so I vowed to attend and graduate just like my mother.
During my senior year, I got straight As and one B+. It was actually pretty easy: I stopped feeding into distractions, which allowed me to focus on what was most important. That meant showing up to class, taking tests seriously, and completing all my assignments. That’s it. In addition, my classes were not rigorous. Think about it: Is it really that hard to get an A in a class? Not really. The biggest problem most people have is being strong enough to cut their your so-called “friends” who don’t respect their grind. In this regard, I did not have to exert myself too much to get an A. But because of my late start in taking school seriously, I graduated with a 2.7 cumulative GPA (which was barely enough to get into college). That low GPA meant I lost out on all kinds of scholarships. Luckily, the 100 helped get me into Morehouse College, the premier institution for educating Black men in this world.
Morehouse College was my promised land. It is the alma mater of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee and other notable men. I had never before imagined so many Black men in college. These men weren’t young men that hung on the street; instead they were the sons of politicians, celebrities, lawyers, and businessmen from all walks of life. I was surrounded by national speech champions, valedictorians, salutatorians, Gates Millennium Scholars, and so many others with distinctions. Here I was thinking how awesome I was compared to my peers for leaving my home state to attend college, and I was surrounded by award-winning, world-traveling young men with family lineages of distinction. I needed to step my game up. WAY UP.
That hopeful future, however, was not guaranteed. My money situation was crucial. When my mother dropped me off at Morehouse, her last words were, “Baby, I hope you make the most of this because I can only do two years’ worth of loans.” While people back home blew their money and credit scores on cars, stereos, and clothes, my mother maxed out everything to invest in me. Everything. From time to time, I’d lean against a wall between classes from the very idea of it; my eyes would close, and I’d get warm in the face.
I needed to show respect for my mother’s efforts by getting cash money lined up for the rest of my years at Morehouse. It was as simple as that; I had to do something to secure the funds to finish school. On top of that, I entered on academic probation, which meant that if I failed one class, I would be kicked out. There I was at the top school in the world for men of color. I was surrounded by opportunity and amazing people I never even imagined existed. This was my chance to fulfill my mission of putting a smile on my mother’s face and becoming a role model for my lil brother. I knew that if I did not make it at Morehouse, there would be no hope for me. I would have probably ended up back on the streets, which may have led to being locked up like my older brother. So, I turned to what I knew and made college my hustle.
Over the next five years in college (yes, I stayed an extra year. Why not? I was in no rush to get into the “real world.” Not to mention, I got someone else to pay for it!), I earned over $100,000 in scholarships, fellowships, and awards that took me all over the nation and paid for my international travels. As I became a high-achiever, I wondered what made me, the men of Morehouse, and the men of the 100 distinctive? Was it luck? Was it hard work alone? Or was it networking with the right people?
When I got to go to Emory University and the University of California-Berkeley for research programs, I decided to figure out how great Black men developed despite the odds. What books did they read? What did they do differently from others? What were the factors that led to their success? I made it my mission to find the answers, so I could take it back to my family and community. I continued to develop the research over years and eventually won a few national awards for it.
I distilled what I learned from my personal transformation and my national award-winning research into a system. After returning to Morehouse, I began to teach this system and went on to expand it in the surrounding schools. After seeing impressive results in the young students, I took a chance and used my system with my lil brother. It paid off: he was accepted into Morehouse College with about $250,000 in scholarships. A lot of guys with both our backgrounds barely make it into college. The smallest hiccup with paying tuition or any small obstacle can have them dropping out and unloading stock at Walmart, hoping for something to save them. Let me repeat: my brother was accepted into Morehouse College with over $250,000 in scholarships. He’s getting his education with plenty of money because I taught him how to hustle. At the time of this writing, my lil brother, Randon Campbell, is in his first year at the University of Michigan Dental School; the #1 dental school in the WORLD with over $80,000 in scholarships. I recognize that I am relatively young to have come across and shared what I have discovered and that’s a good thing. It proves that you don’t have to wait to be 40-something to make moves. In this book, for the first time, I have laid out that system. This is how you can become a high-achiever and GET PAID NOW, while achieving your dreams. This is the promise of The Academic Hustle. Let’s get it!
The best things you get out of life require struggle.
If it don’t, you gettin hustled homeboy.
You gettin hustled.
How I see it,
anything you wanna be you can be it.
—Dead Prez, “The Game of Life”
Introduction to The Academic Hustle
Hustle - To have the courage, confidence, self-belief, and self-determination to go out there and work it out until you find the opportunities you want in life.
—UrbanDictionary.com
Many people believe that to make money you have to be established in a career. I prefer to make money now. This book details the system I discovered as I was trying to get paid while still in school.
The Academic Hustle is about grinding and getting paid now, as in sending-an-email-or-fine-tuning-your-résumé-while-this-book-is-open-and-next-to-the-keyboard now. It is a systematic approach to earning money while developing a career. You can become a competitive candidate for any school, program, scholarship, or job by applying this system to your life. It is organized around the following concepts: Three Fundamental Truths, The Foundation, Four Pillars, and Two Costs.
Three Fundamental Truths
There are Three Fundamental Truths about making money in this world:
1. Money is exchanged for value
“For the Love of Money” by The O’Jays is classic R&B. My uncles would sit around at family gatherings sipping on Millers while that song played. They would reminisce about friends that had gone mad chasing money in vain, only for it to end with them either in jail or dead. With so many lives lost and ruined in pursuit of money, it is very easy to assume it is the answer to all things. It seems impossible to convince those who’ve never had it that money isn’t everything. Before we go any further, let’s put its true value in perspective.
Money is simply a medium of exchange – period. It has no value outside of what we place on it. Most of us desire money because of the things we can get in its exchange. Some things such as friendship, love, and loyalty lose integrity and value when one attempts to gain them in exchange for money. Nevertheless, many are impressed with the respect and attention money can bring their way. It is not the physical money that we seek, but the options and value we can gain by acquiring it.
Throughout our lives, we constantly exchange money for
