by Mike-the-Pharmacist
I love the idea of a side hustle. I recommend a side hustle. I teach how to start a side hustle. If you don’t already have one or five others you are doing, I have one you can partner up with me to do.
But I don’t like what I call the Rat Race Side Hustle Bait and Switch. What I mean by that is this – you probably don’t like your job and it feels like a rat race that you are in until the day you die. I can invite you to take a look at a side business idea and my pitch is this – “Do you want to be working the rest of your life trying to build someone else’s dream? Why not devote time to building your dream?” And I show you a business, get you on a big zoom meeting, get you to talk to some leaders in the up line above me, spend hours and hours answering your every question, get you to join, show you the ropes, hold your hand while you learn the ropes – and then you finally show others the business get them on a big zoom meeting, get them to talk to some leaders and spend hours and hours answering their questions. Rinse wash repeat. Until the day you die.
The problem is you just traded cubicles. You just traded rat races. You are no more free if you are in an endless race building the side hustle dream someone else described OR if you stayed building the corporate conglomerate that keeps giving you a little cheese each week.
I am not against the side hustle – but I am against the way it’s often just sucking you into just another world of never-enoughs. And what is worse, you can clock out of your job when you get out. If you trade task masters, you can find yourself in just another rut. This one is one where you are always glued to your phone, always trying to prospect anyone with a pulse, and just chasing another carrot for leaders who can’t be satisfied.
The more you do in either of these ventures, the more folks demand. I don’t have time for that, I don’t want to be forced, coerced, tricked, or cattle prodded, no thank you.
So is there a better way? Are we to just be content with wages that don’t keep up with inflation, the ever cutting of hours by our leaders as they try to cut payroll as your debt just keeps mounting, and the ever present threat that our jobs and careers can be replaced and outsourced at any moment by anything that is out there. Grads willing to take our jobs at 1/2 the salary. Those in other countries willing to work our jobs remotely for 1/6 the salary. Children in sweat shops willing to do our jobs for 1/20 of our pay. Do we just ignore all this pending collapse?
If you are a professional what are you going to do if your career comes to a screeching halt? There seems to be a wage that your degree pays per hour and then there is a huge fall off a cliff and the rest of the jobs you can find are just a few dollars above minimum.
Starting a side hustle makes sense. Building a business and building a blog make sense too but I advise start with a simplified side hustle first and then you can delve into the things that take a lot more energy.
The challenge is most of us do not want to jump into any more rat races and the typical side hustle is trying to suck you into one. Even if these rats are shiny happy rats and have a frenzy of energy and passion for what they do. The rat race took our best energy out of us. When you are 7 years old, it sounds fun to run with a bunch of wild 5 year olds for hours. When you are middle aged, high energy people are not a good mix. We want calm, cool, and collected. That is not the wild side hustle crazy Gold Rush journey we care to join. Sorry to break it to you.
Here is the good news — you can make a side income and you can do it at your pace and you don’t have to just get sucked into Happy World.
Let me ask you what is more appealing:
Option 1 – The slow approach of total immersion into a culture of full time side hustlers.
They find someone desperate to leave the rat race and ask:
Are you looking to build an extra income stream? GREAT! Let’s meet up- how does next week sound?
So we meet for coffee and I hand you a book about side hustles and see if you will complete that assignment. You do and come back again for more coffee a week later and you get an elusive pitch and explanation about why you need a side hustle, and get invited now to a bigger meeting and there you meet lots of shiny happy people all excited they found a way out of the Rat Race.
And more coffee.
And after the meeting you hear some more clues about what this is and then you are invited back and this time hear about the guy who was like you years ago but now he left his J.O.B. (J.O.B. = Just OVER Broke) for this great opportunity and now after 6 months he is making $50,000 a day (while everyone else in the crowd is spending $400 a month on products and yet to make a dime) and he is so,so happy and smiley and if he can do it you can do it.
And you are offered more coffee and some of their energy drinks and you get shown some training to learn about this thing that you don’t even know what it is and you are encouraged to tell others about this vague great new thing and to bring them too next time for rah-rah stories and coffee.
And at some point, they tell you it’s Amway or whatever and you feel obligated and you buy a starter kit (that you will keep unopened in your garage until you move) but you never go any further because you are too embarrassed you let them string you along and you don’t want to do that to anyone else.
OR
Option 2 – it’s all in plain sight. You don’t have to peddle expensive overpriced products, but services that you normally pay anyway – electric bills, cellular, home security, and more. Tools do the heavy lifting. It’s not this dragged out bad marriage proposal. If you want to make extra money, you watch a video how it works – a 6 minute video. You go to the website and sign up. If you have questions, you can watch a quick video on how it works. After if you want to attend a team zoom, you can, but you can build it 100% from an app on your phone and not have to turn it into another rat race. You can reach out to 10 people a day with a simple system that anyone can duplicate. You can reach out to 100. You can reach out to 1 a month. It’s up to you. You don’t need to twist anyone’s arm, you don’t need to trick anyone, you don’t need to find a way to sneak them on a call with the top leader.
I am for helping people make an extra income stream. A SIDE project that truly doesn’t interfere with what they are already doing. If it’s all by tools and videos and it’s all a well oiled system, it is a TRUE SIDE HUSTLE. Something you do in the nooks and crannies of your day. Simple steps (if you like option 2) —
Are you open to the option of earning another paycheck each month?
If yes – Would you be willing to watch a 6 minute video to see if that is something you can see yourself doing?
If you like what you see- Would you jump on a website and sign up for this?
If you see how others would benefit- Would you be willing to manage a grand total of 20-25 personal customers who don’t have to pay a dime to be your customer (for which you will earn a nice bonus as well) or to save on what they are already buying anyway?
If you want this to be a true side hustle – Finally, are you willing to refer others who are open to the option of earning another paycheck each month?
If option 2 is what you prefer, let me know via email or comment here.
And we can started and even skip the coffee if you want.