Hard up?

Reader question:

Please explain this sentence: Why do young people feel so hard up?

My comments:

In other words, why do young people feel so poor and cash-strapped?

Depending on who we’re talking about, I guess.

I can sympathize with young people in the city. Young people in the city feel hard up for various reasons. Off the top of my head, I can think of the following two. First, starting salaries tend to be small and less than adequate. Sufficiently well-paying jobs are always few and far between. Second, unlike previous generations, i.e. their parents and grandparents, today’s young people tend to be spendthrift. Relative speaking, young people today prefer spending their money than saving any. Therefore, they are often hard up for cash in time of an emergency.

Now, hard up.

Hard as in, hard times, hard luck. Hard as in, life is hard. Hard, as in hardship.

Speaking of hardship, today’s generation are not known for bearing hardship, let alone embracing it.

Again, relatively speaking, as things are all relative. Today’s young are not as tough when it comes to “eating bitter”, as the Chinese saying goes.

Individual situations vary, and if this is any consolation, let me point out that every generation feel hard up when they’re at a young age. My generation is no exception. And if I have any advice to offer, it is this: Hang in there. Hang in there and hang tough. Work harder. Don’t give up. Do not lie flat. Do not quit your job and go back to your parents.

Going back to “biting off the old” may be an easy way out for now, but, in the long run, you run the risk of making a bad situation worse.

Instead, hang tough and let temporary hardships help you grow.

As an idiom, by the way, “hard up” has its roots in seafaring. TheIdioms.com explains thus:

The phrase “hard up” originally comes from nautical terminology. In the days of sailing ships, to be “hard up” referred to a specific position of the ship’s helm. When the helm was turned hard upwind, it meant the vessel was steered away from the wind. This maneuver was typically employed to navigate away from difficult wind conditions. Over time, this term began to metaphorically describe situations where individuals or groups had to navigate away from their own “rough winds,” especially in financial terms.

Plausible?

I think so. Our own hard-up situations are no different than the “tough winds” sailors face from time to time on the high seas.

And in any hard-up situation, the solution is to stay the course and tough it out, as they say.

Hard up or hard-up, in short, refers to situations where people feel tight or short for money, especially for cash.

Money on hand, that is, and in pocket.

All right, let’s read a few “hard-up” examples culled from the media over the years:

1. Beyoncé's estranged father, Mathew Knowles, was found Tuesday selling old Destiny’s Child paraphernalia outside his Houston office for cheap – three T-shirts for $10.

The goods – boxes and boxes of early DC, Beyoncé, and Solange apparel, posters, and other merchandise – were up for the taking in what Knowles said was a bid to clear space... and make a few extra bucks.

Knowles, who said he thought he could make up to $2,000 from the garage sale, denied that he was hard up for money. “If I needed money, I wouldn’t sell a $5 T-shirt,” he told KPRC Houston. “I’d sell a Grammy or an MTV award.”

Though he kickstarted Beyoncé's music career, Knowles was fired as her manager in 2011 and split from wife Tina amid rumors of infidelity that same year. Earlier this month, leaked Sony emails showed that he’d been shopping a Destiny’s Child biopic.

A representative for Knowles hasn’t returned a request for comment.

- Beyoncé’s Dad Had A Garage Sale To Sell Her Old Stuff, BuzzFeedNews.com, December 25, 2014.

2. Boris Johnson has told friends that he is experiencing serious money problems.

Multiple reports suggest that the UK Prime Minister’s financial situation has led to him attempting, and in some cases succeeding, to use donations from the Conservative party, and other donors, to pay for:

The refurbishment of his Downing Street residence

A Caribbean holiday with his fiancée Carrie Symonds

His child's nanny

His own personal trainer

￡27,000 worth of takeaway meals

Some commentators close to Johnson have suggested that these alleged money problems are due to the reduction in his income since entering Downing Street, combined with payments for his indeterminate number of children, and his divorce from his second wife Marina Wheeler.

Without having access to Johnson’s personal financial records it is impossible to know for sure quite how seriously to take these claims of his supposed hardship.

However, analysis of his declared income, as well as accounts of his past behavior, does give some reason to doubt it.

To begin with, it is worth pointing out that Johnson’s ￡160,000 salary as prime minister, while not stratospheric compared to some of his higher-earning peers, still puts him in the top 1% of all earners in the UK.

It’s also worth pointing out that, unlike most people, his housing, transport, and large parts of his living costs are also covered by the taxpayer.

And while he has had a significant reduction in his main sources of income since becoming prime minister, prior to his premiership he was one of the highest-earning politicians in the country, raking in over ￡275,000 a year from his Telegraph column on top of his salary as a politician.

And although he has been forced to abandon that column, he does still continue to make many thousands of pounds worth of royalties from his back catalogue of books every year, according to his register of interests.

In addition to this, he also declared ￡123,000 for a single speech in India in 2019, plus ￡88,000 from publishers Hodder and Staughton for an advance on as-yet unpublished book about Shakespeare.

Yet despite all this past and present income, a report by last week’s Sunday Times quoted a government source suggesting that the prime minister was so hard up that he had missed key emergency meetings at the start of the pandemic due to "working on a biography of Shakespeare, the money from which he needed to fund his divorce."

A spokesperson for the publisher would not comment on whether Johnson had kept the advance for the as-yet-unpublished book, telling Insider only that “We have not scheduled the book to be released in the foreseeable future,” and “we never comment on our authors’ advances.”

- Boris Johnson has told friends he is broke and has to accept free holidays and meals from donors. But the truth is likely very different, BusinessInsider.com, May 29, 2021.

3. Elon Musk, one of the most polarizing and visionary figures of our time, has built a reputation on boldness, innovation, and an unparalleled work ethic. From revolutionizing electric vehicles with Tesla (TSLA) to making space exploration a commercial reality with SpaceX, Musk’s advice has always revolved around one principle: take risks and outwork everyone else.

In a 2014 commencement address at USC, Musk laid out his philosophy with blunt clarity: “You need to work super hard.” Recalling his early days co-founding Zip2 with his brother, Musk described sleeping on a small office couch because they couldn’t afford an apartment. “We showered at the YMCA and were so hard-up that we only had one computer,” Musk explained. He would code through the night, allowing the website to remain live during the day.

For Musk, the formula for success is as straightforward as his anecdotes: “If somebody else is working 50 hours [per week] and you’re working 100, you’ll get twice as much done in the course of a year as the other company.” He dismissed the notion of shortcuts, framing his relentless pace as a fundamental truth of achieving greatness.

This ethos isn’t confined to Musk’s early days. During the infamous production crunch for Tesla’s Model 3, Musk slept on the factory floor to personally oversee operations. “The couch was too narrow,” he quipped to CBS’s Gayle King, showcasing his dedication to ensuring Tesla’s success, even at personal discomfort.

Musk’s message extends beyond hard work; it’s about practicality and grit. Speaking during a Google Hangout in 2013, he urged entrepreneurs to “do all sorts of jobs and tasks that you might not wish to do” and “be prepared to do whatever it takes.” For him, no task is too menial if it serves the mission.

…

Though his methods and public persona are not without controversy – most recently with his polarizing acquisition of Twitter and political endorsements – Musk’s ability to achieve audacious goals is undeniable. Whether you’re inspired by his work ethic or skeptical of his leadership, Musk’s advice boils down to a universal truth: take bold steps, and don’t regret the chances you didn’t take.

“It’s simple math,” Musk said. And for better or worse, Elon Musk continues to rewrite the equation for success.

- Elon Musk Reveals His “Simple” 100-Hour Workweek Formula for Being Successful and Building a $300 Billion Empire, TheGlobeAndMail.com, November 27, 2024.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）