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Abstract

a side hustle, your reason why should be obvious. Furthermore, I posit some part of it should be driven by passion. That’s why I’ve always called Venture Out my passion project, with more expenses than income for years now, I’m being told by my CPA that it’s getting dangerously close to being called an expensive hobby.<h1 id="f160">2. Why now?</h1>I believe there are two aspects to answering the questions of, “why now?”The first part is personally what’s going on in your life. Perhaps you’ve reached a mid-life crisis and questioning what you’re doing with your career. Perhaps you just need an additional income. Or perhaps the world of COVID has taught us that we need to be more adaptable.Personally, I’m hoping your reason why is that there’s a deep, innate yearning for something more. That you’ve locked onto your personal why and now it needs to be let out in the form of producing something valuable into the world. In other words, you understand your purpose and you want to contribute to the greater whole of humanity.<figure id="8bda"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*9LYJeMlG51H8TMiTkIZHjA.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://www.pexels.com/@serjosoza?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels">sergio souza</a> from <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/swimmers-taking-park-in-challenge-in-sea-3772245/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure>The second part of the answer is what’s going on in the world. Like Malcolm Gladwell explains in the Tipping Point, sometimes our ideas can reach the pinnacle of success only if the world is ready for them. He gives examples like Bill Gates and the advent of the personal computer because the technology had reached a point he could exploit for the masses.“It does no good if the great idea comes too early too late.”So, I would suggest here scanning the environment around you, to understand the state of culture, technologies, norms, and perhaps trends. Each of these components is an ever-changing variable that we should have some instinct on if it’s ripe for exploitation.For example, with my own passion project, I do sense there’s a growing demand for healthy habits about productivity. The world continues to demand us to be “always-on” and that means we have to watch out for our own personal balance and health. Venture Out seeks to help my readers achieve that positive lifestyle while increasing productivity.I suggest doing research to see what are the top side hustles and adapting for the time we are in. In the <a href="https://www.oberlo.com/blog/si">“10 Best Side Hustle Ideas to Make an Extra $1000 a Month”</a>, the top few side hustles are starting a dropshipping business, freelance writing, affiliate marketing, getting a side job in a gig economy (Lyft!), and blogging. For a deeper investigation of

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ideas, try out Chris Guillebeau, the New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup, and The Happiness of Pursuit. <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/side-hustle-summary/">Here’s a summary of his latest book, Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days, in just 4 minutes</a>.<h1 id="3729">3. What’s your unfair advantage?</h1>I think the easiest answer here is: you.But the trick is to be brutally honest with what about you is that unfair advantage. I love the truth that each of us is unique and have the ability to change this world, but at the same time acknowledge we are but a speck of sand on the beach of life.<figure id="7a24"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*xAOglgYQxMsLS-L7z5CcRw.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://www.pexels.com/@serjosoza?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels">sergio souza</a> from <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/swimmers-taking-park-in-challenge-in-sea-3772245/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure>Let’s take Tony Robbins, almost billionaire, and self-help guru, for example. His unfair advantage is not his ginormous head nor his towering stature. I would say it’s not even his incredible ability to diversity his lines of business. At the root of Tony Robbins is his ability to connect and be compassionate. That’s his reason why he’s doing this, why it continues to resonate today, and also his unfair advantage. It’s unfair because he does so much better than anyone else, and from that, he’s able to translate that into soldout conferences where he charges$ 10,000 per seat, best-selling books, and so much more. Read his <a href="https://www.tonyrobbins.com/stories/gain-edge-competition/">7 tips on how to gain a competitive edge</a> and see which ones you can apply to your side hustle.<h1 id="8ef7">Wrapping it up…</h1>Whether you have a side hustle already or not, there 3 questions are worth asking at the start or during. The answers to these questions should come easily and obviously to you. It’s your job now to communicate those answers to your customers.My last piece of advice for you is to do this even if you don't start one. That’s right, whip out your journal and write down the answers to these 3 questions today. In doing so, you’ll discover more about yourself and that’s worth more than any side hustle.<figure id="b0cd"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*6f-cCAQzvXoTuLBtPfbNkQ.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://www.pexels.com/@mesut-cicen-42370714?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels">Mesut çiçen</a> from <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-wearing-hat-standing-in-open-fields-and-watching-balloons-in-sky-10909446/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure></article></body>

3 Questions to Ask In Your Side Hustle

Why, why now, and why is it unfair? The answer to all of them is your passion.

I’ve been doing side hustles since I was a child. My first ever attempt was a Geocities (remember that?!) website that offered personalized poems for $0.25 per stanza and I still have that first check of $1.25 buried somewhere. I used to run an online magazine before it was popular, consisting of a staff full of freelancers. Today I’m still at it with my positive productivity newsletter, Venture Out, with over 25,000 subscribers. There’s been a constant theme amongst all my startups, which I’ll cover in just a bit.

This article isn’t simply a primer on how to have a side hustle. No, this article is about checking in with your idea for a side hustle or if you started one already. These fundamental questions are from Tim Ferriss, master of deconstruction. He asserts if you can’t answer these quickly and with passion, you might have to rethink your gameplan.

1. Why are you doing this?

Guy Raz, host of the How I Built This podcast and at age 25, the youngest overseas-based bureau chief for NPR, is great at dissecting successful entrepreneurs and business people down to their core reason of what drives them. That’s why I suggest listening to others’ stories on what they overcame to achieve their level of success. I’d bet that something universal in all of them is passion.

A few episodes I suggest that are worth the listen:

Lyft’s John Zimmer — Ever since hearing about his why, I’ve been ‘Team Lyft’ and not Uber, because built into the culture of Lyft is a drive to save the environment.
Whole Foods Market’s John Mackey — Why would anyone startup a business that’s already saturated and has a high barrier to entry? The answer is because they saw an unfulfilled need.
Warby Parker’s Dave Gilboa & Neil Blumenthal — They had a shared frustration on why can’t a pair of glasses be cheaper but still stylish, and through grit and scrappiness, they overcame.

Again, the point is if you have a side hustle, your reason why should be obvious. Furthermore, I posit some part of it should be driven by passion. That’s why I’ve always called Venture Out my passion project, with more expenses than income for years now, I’m being told by my CPA that it’s getting dangerously close to being called an expensive hobby.

2. Why now?

I believe there are two aspects to answering the questions of, “why now?”

The first part is personally what’s going on in your life. Perhaps you’ve reached a mid-life crisis and questioning what you’re doing with your career. Perhaps you just need an additional income. Or perhaps the world of COVID has taught us that we need to be more adaptable.

Personally, I’m hoping your reason why is that there’s a deep, innate yearning for something more. That you’ve locked onto your personal why and now it needs to be let out in the form of producing something valuable into the world. In other words, you understand your purpose and you want to contribute to the greater whole of humanity.

The second part of the answer is what’s going on in the world. Like Malcolm Gladwell explains in the Tipping Point, sometimes our ideas can reach the pinnacle of success only if the world is ready for them. He gives examples like Bill Gates and the advent of the personal computer because the technology had reached a point he could exploit for the masses.

“It does no good if the great idea comes too early too late.”

So, I would suggest here scanning the environment around you, to understand the state of culture, technologies, norms, and perhaps trends. Each of these components is an ever-changing variable that we should have some instinct on if it’s ripe for exploitation.

For example, with my own passion project, I do sense there’s a growing demand for healthy habits about productivity. The world continues to demand us to be “always-on” and that means we have to watch out for our own personal balance and health. Venture Out seeks to help my readers achieve that positive lifestyle while increasing productivity.

I suggest doing research to see what are the top side hustles and adapting for the time we are in. In the “10 Best Side Hustle Ideas to Make an Extra $1000 a Month”, the top few side hustles are starting a dropshipping business, freelance writing, affiliate marketing, getting a side job in a gig economy (Lyft!), and blogging. For a deeper investigation of ideas, try out Chris Guillebeau, the New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup, and The Happiness of Pursuit. Here’s a summary of his latest book, Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days, in just 4 minutes.

3. What’s your unfair advantage?

I think the easiest answer here is: you.

But the trick is to be brutally honest with what about you is that unfair advantage. I love the truth that each of us is unique and have the ability to change this world, but at the same time acknowledge we are but a speck of sand on the beach of life.

Let’s take Tony Robbins, almost billionaire, and self-help guru, for example. His unfair advantage is not his ginormous head nor his towering stature. I would say it’s not even his incredible ability to diversity his lines of business. At the root of Tony Robbins is his ability to connect and be compassionate. That’s his reason why he’s doing this, why it continues to resonate today, and also his unfair advantage. It’s unfair because he does so much better than anyone else, and from that, he’s able to translate that into soldout conferences where he charges $10,000 per seat, best-selling books, and so much more. Read his 7 tips on how to gain a competitive edge and see which ones you can apply to your side hustle.

Wrapping it up…

Whether you have a side hustle already or not, there 3 questions are worth asking at the start or during. The answers to these questions should come easily and obviously to you. It’s your job now to communicate those answers to your customers.

My last piece of advice for you is to do this even if you don't start one. That’s right, whip out your journal and write down the answers to these 3 questions today. In doing so, you’ll discover more about yourself and that’s worth more than any side hustle.