Money vs Passion: Side Hustles
There’s this video by Gary Vee called Use Laziness to Your Advantage that stuck with me. It was one of those bits of information that clicks in your head, that you resonate with, and then completely forget about.
Here’s the punchline:
“Laziness has my attention because I think if you’re lazy, you’re actually giving yourself an indication that you don’t like it [the thing you’re procrastinating].”
Keep that in the back of your mind while I tell you a little story.
Over the past 4 or 5 months, I’ve been working on building an SEO business. I started by focusing on freelancing, just trading hours for money. I got a few clients, but found myself dreading the work.
I was excited about building the business, but started procrastinating the work.
With jobs it’s one thing. You show up, put your time in, and then come home to relax. But with a side hustle, it’s different. Not only do you have to show up at your full-time job, but when you’re exhausted at the end of the day, you still have to show up to build your side hustle.
You have to sacrifice your weekends, lunches, and morning to work on your project(s). The fuel you receive from the idea of extra money starts to wane quickly when you’re exhausted and just want to relax.
Disclaimer: The ‘burn the boats’ methodology works here too, but when you’re trying to start a small side hustle, and don’t have a huge safety net to quit your job, there aren’t too many other options. Also, this is only true if you’re in a decent financial spot with your career to begin with, which luckily, I am.
The one source that can keep that fuel going is “I truly love working on this.” (AKA enjoying the journey.)
If you find yourself being lazy or procrastinating when it comes to your side-hustle, it might be time to take a step back and ask why.
These are the questions I asked myself:
- Why do you want to work on your side hustle?
- Are you doing it for the money?
- If so, why do you want the money?
It turns out that yes, I was mainly focusing on freelancing because it was the easiest way to make extra money, and I wanted the “freedom” that it could provide me. (Spoiler alert, freelancing ≠ freedom.)
It turns out that I didn’t need the quickest way to make money through my side hustle. I wasn’t enjoying the process, which is what really matters at the end of the day. What I really wanted was to start building businesses. To work on becoming an entrepreneur instead of just a freelancer. There’s nothing wrong if becoming a freelancer is your passion, I just found out that it’s probably not mine.
Keep the purpose for your side hustle close. If your purpose isn’t strong enough to keep you going, it might be time to take a step back and re-evaluate.
Have comments or want to start a discussion? Let’s chat about this post over on Twitter!
