Charlie Mullins

It’s a sign of the times that the word ‘hustle’ has taken on a fresh and more respectable meaning when it comes to business.

In my day, the hustle was a dance popular in the discotheques (now there IS a word you don’t hear any more!) of my 1970’s youth.

Alternatively, it referred to someone with an ability to take a few quid off you in a game of pool or a geezer knocking out counterfeit videos which, when you got them home, were usually unwatchable.

However, these days many a respected business figure happily put their success down to their hustling spirit. 

Pimlico Plumbers - Business Column written by Charlie Mullins

They do say that being an entrepreneur is a young person’s game.

When I founded Pimlico Plumbers, I was I was in my 20’s, and this is a trade which often involves lots of hard graft and stamina.

It’s probably no coincidence that the likes of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg were also in their 20’s when they founded their respective business empires.

Although this might be where any comparison with yours truly ends - as I’m more at home fixing a leaky pipe or installing a downstairs lav than getting involved in the world of tech!

Maybe it’s just the media image of entrepreneurs as young and thrusting but, it seems, the times they are a changing.