Side-Hustle Blues

The screencap of a tweet above is a short story from someone in a creative industry about someone else in a creative industry who made their passion into a job. Who wouldn’t want to do that? Yet it is a cautionary tale. That guitarist ended up hating the thing they loved.

OK, it’s not quite a Stephen King screenplay, nor an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’ but it is LinkedIn-scary.

Builders who love building, cooks who love cooking, and so forth, all face that risk. Many small businesses start out as a ‘side-hustle’ with a dream of leaving the ‘day-job’. Few anticipate the nightmare of ending up in another day-job of their own making, but now without the activity they once loved and found creative comfort in.

That doesn’t have to happen but how can you stop it from happening?

I train, speak & coach. Enjoy it. Always have. Still do. As much by good luck as by good management, from the get-go of my side-hustling days, I had a notion. (Let’s retro-fit this notion with a label 20 years later; let’s call it my ‘strategy’). I knew there would be elements of a business I wouldn’t enjoy so I WOULDN’T DO THEM.

Crazy, right? Now, the strategy has worked but there is a 2nd important, often overlooked element…

SOMEONE ELSE HAS TO DO THEM.

Find that someone before you sign anything.

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These posts will resume Jan 18 2021 as I’m taking a break this kiwi summer. Stay tuned.

More at terrywilliamstrainer.com