The Mandatory Side Hustle

It's not optional anymore

The types of careers that people went into because they assumed they would be safe, high-paying, and stable forever are revealing themselves to be anything but.

The current situation with Big Tech layoffs reminds me of a professor in one of my college classes back in the day.

He stood in front of the classroom and his voice slowed down into the wise-old-man-giving-advice-to-the-younger-generation tone and he said:

“You shouldn’t choose your college major based on what will be most likely to get you a job, because that always changes. I’ve seen different majors being hyped throughout my career. Right now everyone thinks computer programming jobs are going to be around forever, but one day that could change. Just major in what you want and find a way to make it work”.

At the time I thought he sounded like an insane and out of touch old dude.

Obviously computer programmers would be employed and making bank forever. Only a fool would think otherwise.

It turns out he was right.

The people who chose the practical option at the time are in full panic mode right now.

The stable white collar jobs that everyone clamored for are getting wiped out.

Shoutout to that old fat guy teaching a freshman oceanography class. He was wise beyond his station.

So what exactly do you do when the world is uncertain and you don’t know if you’re going to have a job a month from now let alone a decade?

You diversify.

Multiple income streams are mandatory in times of great uncertainty.

Even if you’re one of those rare people who loves your career and can’t imagine doing anything else, you have to admit that the decision might be out of your hands.

Your job can be taken away from you, at any time and without warning.

A side hustle is the only way to protect yourself.

Even if you only make an extra $1k on the side…at least you won’t go to absolute zero if the worst case scenario comes to pass.

Many people think “I DO have a plan for if I get laid off. I’ll start a business because I’ll have so much free time”.

What they don’t realize is that it doesn’t work that way.

There’s a long period of failure and frustration you have to go through before you start making money.

And that pain is a lot easier to bear when you already have an income stream from your 9-5.

It’s much better to have a successful-yet-small side hustle ready to go and ready to scale vs. trying to build one from scratch when you desperately need it.

Firstly: it’s a lot easier to go from $1k to $10k then it is to go from $0 to $1k.

The number zero has a sort of gravitational pull.

When you have nothing the Universe tries to keep you there, and it’s only through monumental effort that you can get yourself off literal zero.

Secondly: nothing ever works when you need it to work.

It’s another one of those Iron Laws of the Universe.

When you have more than enough money it seems like people go out of their way to give you even more.

But when you desperately need the cash it’s nowhere to be found.

So build your side hustle NOW.

The fact that you don’t need the money is the most glaring signal indicating that you should definitely do it.

Because one day in the future you’ll wake up thinking it’s a normal Tuesday only to check your email and see the layoff notice (and feel your world crashing down around you while you read it)…you’ll wish you could get into a time machine and come back to this moment, right now, sitting here reading this newsletter, so you could smack yourself in the back of the head and say “start the damn side business right now, dumbass”.