Passive Income is Not Actually Passive.
After watching a YouTube video that took a critical look at passive income and side hustles, I realized this important lesson.
Passive income will never be 100% passive.
You may be tilting your head with a confused look on your face.
Let me explain.
After coming across a Youtube video that dispelled the glamour behind side hustles, I started to think critically.
The reason so many of us are enchanted with ‘passive income’ is because of the idea of separating money from time.
Passive income is sold as the opportunity to stop trading your time for money.
But the truth is passive income doesn’t separate your time from your money, not completely.
What we can do with passive income is trade the least amount of time for the most amount of money, eventually.
The truth is we don’t stop trading time for money.
Here’s another caveat. To create passive income, there’s a huge upfront investment.
You either invest your money or time or both depending on what you choose to pursue.
If you take the time to analyze what these side hustles entail, you’ll realize they will always require you to work in order for them to produce.
Now, I’m not writing this to discourage you from starting your business.
However, I’ve said this before and will say it again — I want to communicate the realities of making money online, becoming your own boss, and pursuing entrepreneurship.
I do not want to be part of the group that sells you a pipe dream by telling you you can start making hundreds or thousands tomorrow.
Is this possible? Yes. Is it normal? No.
Being one of the few people that start making money in a relatively short period of time is the exception, not the rule.
In addition, entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart.
There will be plenty of challenges and no one to cheer for you or encourage you during those moments.
You will feel alone in the midst of these difficulties.
The pro in this, if you stick with it, you will become a resilient person.
You will learn to master yourself and conquer your fears.
Which will, in turn, help you build the discipline to continue working toward accomplishing your goals.
Back to the point.
Passive income is real. However, I’ve realized that the popular definition of it is actually false.
Passive income is not retirement.
And if this is what you’re trying to do, well, maybe a side hustle is not the answer you’re looking for.
Here’s what passive income can do:
- It allows you to monetize something you offer that’s of value to an audience.
- It allows you to make money from something you enjoy doing and believe in.
- You can either supplement your income from your job or if you make enough money, you can say goodbye to your boss and take control of your time.
- If your business is online, you can be location-independent, allowing you to work from anywhere. You can travel whenever and wherever you want to.
There are other benefits to pursuing entrepreneurship and passive income, but I think these are the main ones that attract people.
But as you can see, nowhere does it say you will stop working.
We’ve seen many people do this. Think of YouTubers, for example.
Even if they are in Fiji, enjoying the beautiful weather and views, they are still working on recording and editing videos.
Do they make lots of money? Yes, those with a large following do. Do they stop working? Nope.
Because they have a catalog of videos, videos that may trend for a while, their work compounds, allowing them to make lots of money over time.
This then allows them to slow down, outsource aspects of their business, or invest in another business, creating other sources of income — this could be an entire blog on its own, but I’ll stop here for now.
So this is the gist of passive income.
You may or may not agree, and that’s okay. This is just my opinion on how I view passive income and what it entails.
If you have a side hustle, do you consider it to be a source of passive income? What is your definition of passive income?
